


Festival of Blood

by DragonlordRynn



Series: Evolution [4]
Category: Prototype (Video Games), inFAMOUS (Video Games)
Genre: Does it count as 'Major Character Death' if is Undead?, Festival of Blood, Gen, Pyre Night, Vampire Cole, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27298312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonlordRynn/pseuds/DragonlordRynn
Summary: Pyre Night. Bonefires, booze and music. And Vampires. The real deal, not people dressing up. Uh- could have gone better?
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Dana Mercer
Series: Evolution [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/923277
Comments: 21
Kudos: 28





	1. Welcome to Pyre Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised I'd do this, right? So you'll get a story that includes Vampires, Superhumans, Grumpy Military Men, and Viral Bioweapons. So it's really like a B.P.R.D. Story, only with inFAMOUS and [PROTOTYPE].
> 
> EDIT: As of 8th December 2020, I split this story into several chapters to make it easier to handle. Enjoy.

“Pyre Night?” Dana's expression was confused when she glanced up that morning. The others seemed positively giddy, brimming with unrestrained energy. Except Alex, who sat in a corner and was reading the newspapers. 

“It's kind of like the baby of Mardi Gras and Halloween that was conceived from drinking too much wine at the church”, he supplied calmly, not even looking up.

“At its most basic, yes”, Kuo confirmed. “It's a local festivity that takes a whole night here in New Marais. Started out as some sort of religious festival, and as far as I know, it's local, so even New Orleans doesn't celebrate Pyre Night.”

“You get booze and bonfires and music and all kind of snacks”, Cole added. “Basically, everybody dresses up as monster and celebrates.” He shrugged. “Around Sun-down, the kids generally do their Trick-and-Treating, so they'll be in bed sleeping off the sugar rush when the real party starts.”

“Was de bes' nigt' all year”, Nix threw in. “We would sneak into de city and 'aff fun.”

“It was more subdued under Bertrand”, Kuo pointed out. “But was still the one night in the year when he couldn't do anything to control the population. Not with like three quarters of his men partying along.” She hummed. “Pretty sure this time it's going to be _wild_.”

“Ya wanna come too?” Nix questioned with a wide grin on her face.

“It's gonna be great”, Zeke added.

Dana shrugged. “Sure, why not? It's not like we had the chance to party ever since we got out of Manhattan. Unless-” She eyed Alex. He tilted his head. “Why ask me? You're a grown woman and you may do whatever you like.”

“I was going to ask whether you want to join. I mean, you can put on your Armor tonight, and nobody will know.”

Alex sighed. “I 'd rather keep an eye out”, he decided. “Just make sure we don't get into any trouble.”

“Party Pooper”

His stare was  _very_ flat. “If I do things I like, I will destroy half the city.” He paused for a moment. “Well, I will destroy half the city  _again_ .”

Zeke grinned. “Any chance you'll do your Kaiju thing again? Was pretty sweet the last time.”

The Runner snorted. “Not a chance. It didn't even feel that great and I was constantly afraid I'll step on somebody. Now I won't even have a reason.”

“Leave him”, Dana suggested. “Alex is a constant grump. It's his way of life. He doesn't do party.”

“I do party”, he argued.

“You only do party if it includes dismembered bodies. Let's face it, Alex, you're not cut out for mind-numbing amounts of booze and coma-inducing drinking.”

“But you are?”

“Not really, but I am ready to try it out, at least.” Dana grinned. “Also, candy, and costumes. You can count me in.”

* * *

A week had passed, during which Dana witnessed how the people of New Marais began to decorate their city for the upcoming celebration. Scary demon visages were put up either as decorations on buildings or balloons tied to the roofs (some of those faces looked suspiciously like Bertrand), bonfires were put together. Kuo started buying full-sized candy to hand out, because it was cheaper than the fun-sized sweets in comparison, and hid the bags to prevent the others from snacking too soon.  
More specifically, she handed the bags over to Alex with the instructions to keep everyone away until Pyre Night began.

Nix and Zeke began brainstorming for costume ideas- Pyre Night wasn't a traditional Halloween celebration, so the most the party goers would wear for masks were tiny plastic horns, wings and neon bracelets. Nix still opted for something more substantial and returned one evening with lots of body paint.

In the end, she and Cole went for the skull face paint, with her ending up looking like the priestess of some evil voodoo cult, while Cole finished the style by wearing an old red hoodie and wrapping bandages around his limbs to look like the Reapers in Empire. Mostly because they were the creepiest guys he'd ever seen and he wasn't ready to dress up like Kessler or Bertrand.  
Zeke simply threw on his old Militia uniform, albeit with colorful badges all over it so nobody would take it too serious, while Kuo switched back to the tank-top and added some ice spikes to her arms. Dana knew perfectly well she wouldn't be able to compete with them and just went with a few neon bracelets. And Alex, ever the party grump, shifted into his Blackwatch uniform and pasted his claws to his arms just because of peer pressure.

After seven 'o clock in the evening, children started to ring their doorbell and left with piles of candy. Alex oversaw the storage, Kuo the distribution, while everybody else was to stay away from the bowl. Dana took pictures of it, especially of Alex with the candy bowl in his arms and the sour expression he wore when he had to distribute sweets to children himself. She grinned to herself when she sent the pictures to James and Maya, who had returned home to L.A. earlier this month.

Zeke had suggested to wait until nine before leaving the house and join in on the festivities, and everybody was counting down the seconds until they would leave. A quarter before nine, the doorbell rang, and Dana went to open it- only when she came back she had a young man with her and looked serious.

“Tell them”, she ordered briefly. The young man twisted his fingers, and cleared his throat. “You Cole?” He asked a little uselessly, because who in New Marais didn't know the Conduit that saved the city?

“Yeah, is there a problem?”

“There is”, the man inhaled once. “I'm very sorry to disturb you, but my buddies and me, we were putting up the decoration inside the crypt of St. Ignatius. But some of our scaffolding collapsed and now my friends are injured.” He grimaced. “I know I should have gone to the police, or ambulance, but your place was nearby, so I thought-”

“Whether I could go and heal them?” Cole finished.

“Yeah. Uh, sorry if it's interfering into your good time-”

“No problem” Cole slid to his feet and stretched his body, grinning. “It's no problem. Honest. Might as well do some good before drinking this city outta commission.”

“See you around then?” Zeke asked.

“Yeah” The Conduit strapped his bag on his back and attached the Amp. He never went anywhere without that thing. “You can go first, and check things out. I'll catch up.”

“Meet you at Fort Phillipe?”

“Yeah, see you.” Cole hurried out of the house Laroche gave to them as thanks, and crossed the short distance to the large church in a reasonably short time. The main doors were open for the more religious part of New Marais's population to meet up and pray, though Cole wasn't interested in the main portion and moved to the back of the church where the entrance to the crypt was. 

Even when he was on the stairs, he could already hear the groaning of the injured, so he leapt down the last few steps and burst into the crypt to take in the damage. Decoration was strewn about, pieces of scaffolding, a few ladders. Several of the present people had already pulled themselves back to their feet, so Cole went towards those that were still on the floor.

He cracked his knuckles and knelt down to place both palms flat against their bodies to transfer his own healing powers into them with a flash of light, fixing them up. Most jumped back startled once he was done, and some only blinked in confusion.

“Uh, thanks, man”, one of them commented, but was cut off when another gasped. “Shit, you MacGrath?!”

Cole grinned. “Last I checked” He nodded towards the rubble. “What happened here? Are there any more of you around?”

“No idea, man”, a third explained. “It's just...we had a bunch of people here, partyin', and suddenly _crack_.”

“Crack?” Cole furrowed his brows and walked around a support pillar, stopping suddenly. There was a sinkhole right in front of him, and beneath- another crypt. “Uh...” He turned to the men with a frown. “Did you know that there is a crypt beneath the crypt here?”

“No”, one of them replied. “I knew that there were tunnels beneath the city used for bootlegging, but this there is new. Wonder why it collapsed?”

Cole frowned. It was possible that the ground had been weakened back when Alex and John fought it out in the churchyard, and just now simply gave in. He grimaced. “I'll check it out, maybe somebody fell through.” He glanced at the others. “You guys get out of here. As long there is a hole in the floor, I'd rather not have anybody prance around here.”

“Yeah, you got it. Meet you topside again?”

“Sure. See you around.” Cole hopped down, inhaling the stale air. There were coffins inside niches along the walls, and a little newer rails inserted into the ground. His lips quirked up in a little smile- bootleggers. Didn't care they were desecrating holy grounds on their quest to get booze. But what where they doing under the church anyways? Stealing communion wine?

He shook his head and sent out a radar pulse, hoping to find some more living people down there, but with all the rubble and obstacles around, his pulse didn't get far. He still had some time though, and decided to check things out by himself.

A swarm of bats startled him as they shot out of an opening in the wall and disappeared somewhere in the dark. He snorted. Little buggers probably made their nest in the crypts and he stomped through here and disturbed them on their nightly hunt for those fat mosquitoes out there.

The tunnels stretched further into the darkness, and Cole stopped after another fifty meters, because it was highly unlikely he would find somebody from the church that deep into the smuggler routes.  _Guess there aren't any more people here_ , he thought and was about to head back when he heard a soft groan. He stopped, listened again- and when he heard the sound once more, he walked towards the sound, finding a young woman draped in front of a fallen flashlight, whimpering a little.

He hurried towards her, dropping to his knees. “Hey, you okay?”

She didn't answer, however, just fell silent- and suddenly twisted around and lunged at him with a sharp hiss. Cole jerked back, eyes wide at the sight of razor-like teeth, too startled to even think about his lightning when she tackled into him and grabbed his head to roughly slam him against the stone floor with enough force to actually knock him right out, because the next thing he realized was that he was being dragged by two guys through the dark.

He tried to free himself, to fight, or just struggle- but he was feeling strangely lethargic. Like all energy had been sucked out of him- and his arms were cuffed behind his back too, to top it all off.

But he  _really_ should try to get out of here, because the others were probably being worried about him. And they didn't know what had happened, so if they would come and rescue him, then maybe it would be too late?

Kessler was going to throw a fit if he came by too early, he figured. And Amy wouldn't stop teasing him about this.

...He was just so tired suddenly. Surely he could get away with closing his eyes for a bit and then figure out how to go on from there?

_No! For the love of- move your ass, Cole!_

_Yeah. If moving wasn't so damn hard, I'd do it._ He decided to go for the middle ground first and slowly pried his eyes open the moment he realized he wasn't being moved anymore.

The first thing he saw reminded him of a National Geographic special he once watched on Ancient Egypt.  
Because there was a mummy just inches from his face. Dried up, hollowed out, lips drawn away from teeth.

...Fang-like teeth.

Cole inhaled sharply and tried to jerk away, but a pair of strong hands kept him in place. It was then when he realized that there were two guys behind him, holding him bent over the mummy. His eyes darted around the room. It was some form of underground crypt, with the body in the middle on a raised pedestal. All around were countless people- men and women, and chanting.

And none of them registered as  _living_ on his internal radar.

He bared his teeth and sparks started crawling across his arms, and he heard the enraged snarls of the guys holding him down as he forced them to clamp down even harder.

Then a hand came up and claws dug into the skin of his throat forcefully, shocking him with how easy it happened. Conduit were a lot tougher and stronger than normal humans, and as such these guys must have been just as strong to be even able to injure him- but they weren't conduits- they weren't even  _alive_ .

One claw bit deep and drew blood. Cole hissed through his teeth and redoubled his efforts to break free, his head was clearing just as his neck started oozing. It wasn't much, and the injury survivable even by human standards, but the wound bled enough so red splattered on the corpse below. Some dripped right into the gaping mouth, right between the fangs-

And the body's eyes shot open, pupils blown wide before they narrowed to pinpricks.

It lurched upright, frail dried hands closing around Cole's shoulders and teeth slammed into his neck violently, like a pit-bull.

_Vampire_

He gasped in shock and attempted to break free, but the corpse was too strong and icy coldness spread from where it had bitten down.  
Cole panicked, but his body became weaker, and the longer she stayed latched onto him, the more she drained him of his blood and the prettier she became. His head was getting strangely numb, and the other vampires around chanted a name.  _Her_ name.

_Bloody Mary_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Nix's costume is based on her initial design, and Cole's is based on the Reaper Skin, which I would play with the entire time if I had inFAMOUS 2.


	2. Wake the Devil

He must have passed out  _again_ , because he found himself on the ground, staring into the murky darkness. 

He was alone, and felt like  _fuck_ , like his leg had gone numb but across his entire body. White static crawled from his neck and he was so strangely cold.

There was a rustle of cloth, and he jerked upright, eyes widening at the sight of the vampire woman. When she'd bitten him, she had been naked and her hair was a mess. Now she was dressed in a ground-length red gown with a black lace choker and her hair was styled into a complicated-looking bun. She seemed amused as she hovered a few inches off the floor. “Well, hello there”, she greeted in a deep and sultry voice, revealing her fangs as she did so. “Did you know they named a cocktail after me? The 'Bloody Mary'. God, I hate that name.” She shook her head. “Worse yet, it's served with  _breakfast_ . When was it ever acceptable to drink before five in the afternoon?”

Cole snarled and struggled to his feet, then lunged at the woman. She just arched one eyebrow, and held out her hand. He stopped abruptly, knees buckling as he dropped to the ground with a bewildered expression. “The Hell?”

Mary's grin widened. “Well, my dear, you're one of us now. And that means, I control you now. Well, you are still a little stubborn like all children, but that phase should be over come sunrise.”

Cole growled and stood back up, fiery lightning snapping from his arms and racing across his body. “Screw. You.”

Mary sighed and held out her hand, and a white-hot lance of pain was jabbed through his skull. “Don't try raising a hand against me. I will not allow it.”

Cole growled again, more lightning surrounding his form. Mary shook her head. “Fine, be that way, I'll leave you to cool off.” With that, she turned into red mist to race down the narrow smuggler's tunnels, throwing loose objects around as he gave chase, grinding along the train tracks to try and keep up with her.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do, or what was even going on, but he knew he had to stop her from getting out, from getting into the city-

A cloud of smoke and bats materialized right in front of him, and he stopped out of instinct to barely avoid the crossbow bolt that burried into the ground in front of him. The guy that formed himself out of the bats was definitely a vampire, with pale skin, pointed ears, massive fangs and a blood stained mouth. He grinned at him. “Young fool”, he snarled. “She seems to like you. But you are nothing”

Cole ducked into a fighting position and moved to draw his Amp- only to grab at air. Startled, he glanced over his shoulder, realizing that the weapon was gone.

Probably somewhere in the tunnels.

Well, shit, because right now he needed a weapon to clobber these bloodsuckers-  
His gaze fell to a coffin on the ground. Or, more specifically, the large decorative cross inserted into its front. It was one of those that had one were long end, and as such, would make a good handle. Cole threw a quick glance back at the vampire, then lunged towards the coffin and stomped down to break the lid and get the metal decoration free. As a bonus, he also pulled some wood free that formed a very pointy end attached to the front end.

Stakes were the best weapons against vampires, after all. He bared his teeth at the guy. “C'mon. I read Dracula. I know how this works.” He lunged at the vampire, slamming the cross into his face, spun around to deliver another blow to his back, and as the guy went down, rammed the pointy end through his back into his heart.

The vampire exploded into dust and ashes, and Cole choked briefly. “Next time, I'll hold my breath”   
Then he spotted Mary and dashed into her direction. The vampire just rolled her eyes and turned back into mist, continuing her way further through the underbelly of the city.

More vampires tried to jump into Cole's way, forcing him to slow down and stake them too, but he lost valuable time. The moment they came closer to an exit, he actually caught up to her.

She arched one eyebrow and another lance of pain jabbed through his skull. “Fine, fine”, her voice sighed inside his head. “I'll give you that one night to act out your little rebellious phase. Tomorrow you'll be my pet, however.” She seemed positively delighted by that idea. “Oh, I know. Maybe I'll dress you up. Put you in a pea coat like the rest of my boys. You'll look very dashing.”

“Shut up!” He snarled, throwing a lightning bolt into her direction. Mary seemed surprised, but furrowed her brows when she dodged and more vampires appeared at her side. Cole swore and threw himself at these guys, firing bolts of lightning at them until he spun on his heel and formed spears of ice to jab them into the guys like stakes.

Mary just shook her head. “You will regret that tomorrow, you know? Staking others of your kind won't make you any friends.”

“I am not your kind!” Cole hollered. “I! Am! Not! A! Vampire!”

“Yes, you are, my dear”, she confirmed, and her voice sent dread run down his spine. “But you are still very violent. Well, I guess I'll need to teach you manners, then. Don't worry about a loss of limbs, it'll all heal up again.”

“Get out of my head!” He shouted, throwing several more ice stakes at the woman. Mary dodged all of them and disappeared suddenly, vanishing through a gap in the door behind her.

The door that led into the city.

Cole gasped and gave chase again, slamming the obstacle open in vague hopes to catch her, but all he could see was the misty cloud vanish in the dark sky.

“Fuck”

He slumped against the door frame, running his hand down his face. He was one of them now. A vampire. An undead monster forever doomed to walk in the dark and drink blood. “Fuck”

“Hey Mister? Could you maybe tell me where the Pyre's around here?” He startled badly, eyes wide at the sight of a woman with neon bracelets. He could smell alcohol on her breath, could hear her heart beat and could almost _taste_ the blood inside of her veins.

Tasty, delicious blood-

He cut himself off, forced himself to step back when he realized he approached her, fingers curling against the stone of the crypt beneath. “Just down the street”, he grit out, trying to  _not_ look at her, trying to ignore the hunger clawing at the back of his brain. “Two blocks maybe-” He hissed when something inside of him twisted and tried to force him to bite her, to take her blood like Mary had done with his. 

The woman cocked her head. “Uh, you okay, man?”

_No_ “Yes-” He bit out, still not looking at her. “Not- feeling well. Partied a little too hard already”, he lied with a pained grimace. “Will be fine, just go.”

She frowned a little. “Okay, if you say so, man. Thanks for the directions.” She staggered off, and Cole had to clamp down on the urge to follow after her anyways.

Only once she was at a good distance, he allowed himself to relax, shoulders slumping in relief. He very nearly had done something he knew he would regret for the rest of his life.

Then a knife bit into his side, and a rough voice hissed into his ear “Hand over your money, asshole, and I'll let you live!”

His resolve went right out of the window.

* * *

Alex wasn't  _worried_ . But he was  _concerned_ . There had been something in the air- he couldn't really tell what it was, only that it reminded him a little of Manhattan. And it hadn't started gradually, either- from one moment to the other he noticed a sudden increase of...dead bodies? He didn't find any dead bodies when he looked, but he was certain he smelled the distinct note of slight rot that accompanied fresh corpses.

It began around ten to fifteen minutes after Cole had left, so his first steps led him to St. Ignatius. He interviewed the present crowd, learnt that Cole had been there and was now in the smuggler tunnels beneath the city.

Alex could have followed. He didn't, for two simple reasons: First of, his main strength was his immense agility, and he hated having his movement restricted. Second, parts of him already spent more than enough time underground- the tunnels and crypts and catacombs and steam tunnels and sewers were where he kept his Biomass back when Bertrand still had control over the city, and as such, he knew every exit route, every crack, ever connection.

He knew that the most accessible smuggler tunnel ran in a straight line from St. Ignatius to Fort Phillipe, and if Cole followed the track, he was most likely going to use that way.

Near one normally locked door to the underbelly of the city located just to the side of the Fort, he found a body. Alex immediately changed his course and headed straight for the corpse, frowning somewhat. Not a party goer, but...He eyed the dirty hoodie, the switchblade, the junkie-like appearance. A mugger?

Wasn't shot or beaten to death what should have been expected, but rather...exsanguinated?

He knelt down besides the body, nose twitching. He smelled like Cole did, but strangely, Cole's scent was somewhat off. And mostly centered around his neck, too. Alex cocked his head and turned the body to the side to get a better look at the man's throat. He didn't know what to make of this, either, because there were bite marks at his neck and saliva. Cole's saliva- but that guy had lightning to take down muggers and wouldn't bite them. Especially not with teeth that left these fang-like marks behind. To top it off, there was no blood anywhere. Six liters should make quite a mess, but everything around here was dry.

It didn't make sense-

...Well, it somewhat  _made_ sense, but those were rather idiotic ideas about old fairy tale monsters that weren't even real. But then again, so were zombies and Kaiju, and Supersoldiers, and human-looking non-human man-eating viral constructs.

Maybe it actually made sense?

Alex frowned deeper, eying the corpse. It was still warm. Cellular processes hadn't stopped yet completely, only the circulation had been halted, because there was no blood. Usually, without a circulation, he couldn't do anything with a corpse- But he had had a real functioning body once, and he knew how to replace a metabolic system. The brain shouldn't be damaged too much by now, and Blackwatch, who took up residence in Phillipe, shouldn't notice him in the dark. It was worth a try.

His hand fell apart into loose tentacles which he jabbed into the corpse's chest, flooding it with active viral agents. They instantly started eating through the closest cells, and once they did, he shoved more Biomass into the system to construct a rudimentary circulation and spread himself through the whole body- including the brain to read the neural pathways.

The latest memories were unfinished, more notions than real memories, but he knew what they meant. Had been a while since he consumed somebody who was aware of their violent end, anyways.

He blinked, remembering targeting that hobo-looking guy who seemed to have had a glass too much. Seemed like an easy target, and he thought he'd get some easy cash off that guy. Didn't expect him to twist around and snarl at him before he ducked out of sight and bit down.

Then everything went dark.

Alex frowned. “The Hell? Since when is Cole a fucking  _vampire_ ?!”

...Would maybe explain why he sensed dead bodies all over the city without finding one-   
Fuck. Did that mean there were vampires all over the city?!

He really needed to find Cole, because that idiot was generally at the center of everything that went down weird.

Alex stood up straight, inhaled the night air. Focused on the scent of ozone and fresh rot where a living body had been before. The trail was strange, like it had been washed out, but still recognizable. From time to time, the trail would become clearer, and this was where he discovered animal corpses- rats, opossums, pigeons, cats, dogs- all drained of blood. All smelling of Cole.

The Runner sighed, glancing at the drunk civilians not even half a block away. Still the goody-two-shoes, huh? Even starving he tried to keep himself away from the humans and stuck with things too small to actually sate his hunger. Alex remembered Margret Jones.  
Then shook his head with a scowl. Cole had always been the better person of them both. But right now, he also got a lot of explaining to do.

He sniffed the night air once, and set out as soon he caught a whiff of the conduit. He was several blocks away already, and moving  _fast_ . Faster than he usually did, and his scent had that strange washed-out quality to it. But Alex was faster by a lot, so he caught up quickly.

His eyes narrowed at the sight of a swarm of bats just in front of him, smelling strongly of Cole.

...Vampires can turn into bats, right? Alex huffed out and unraveled his arms, forming them into a net of tentacles he launched to the front and snatch the first few bats. The second he made contact, the biomass snapped out and grabbed the next few so quickly, the rest of the swarm couldn't evade fast enough and was summarily trapped. When Alex reeled his catch in, it suddenly twisted and lunged at him, now back in a solid human shape- and much faster than Cole usually could move.

Didn't matter, however. He killed things just as fast. He simply spun on his heel to let the lunge miss him, then reached out with his shin-long claws and slammed the conduit into the roof they were on, immobilizing him with a cinder block-like knee to the back. Cole hissed and clawed the ground, but Alex didn't move off him. Instead, he leaned down, growling. “For the love of Fuck, calm your ass down, MacGrath, or I'll make you.”

The conduit shuddered, inhaled sharply and continued to struggle. “Let me go!”

“Not until you tell me what the fuck's going on”, Alex snarled right back. 

Cole hissed and resumed his struggling, until he deflated and slumped to the ground bonelessly. “Let me go”, he pleaded. “Please, I don't have-” He swallowed heavily. “Shit. I don't know anymore. I think I need help.”

Alex just cocked his head and lifted his knee, pulled Cole to his feet but kept an iron grip on his shoulder. He scanned him briefly. Saw the discolored veins running up the right side of his neck, and the red eyes he now had. “Why don't you just start at the beginning?”

The conduit inhaled shakily. “I- I was bitten by a vampire”, he muttered, turning his head so Alex could see the bite marks at the base of his neck. “And I'm now one myself.”

“I kind of figured that much.” 

“I didn't want to!” He snapped, “Do you know how this is?! I am constantly hungry for blood, every time I see a person I just want to _bite_. It's not right. I'm not right-”

“I know exactly how it is”, Alex cut him off. “I am the same, remember? I'm literally the last person going to scream at you about your dietary habits.” He cocked his head. “However, I need to understand. How did it happen?”

Cole huffed out. “Went into St. Ignatius to look for the injured people. Healed them. Found that part of the floor collapsed into the catacombs beneath the city. Followed the bootlegger tunnels. Was attacked. And then-” He swallowed and shook his head. “Woke up with a bunch of vampires all around me. They cut open my neck, dripped blood on a mummy. Mummy wakes up, bites me, and here we are.”

Alex cocked his head. “They resurrected some long-dead vampire with your blood?”

“Yeah. Her name's Mary, by the way. And she-” He grimaced. “I can hear her inside my head, and she already has some control over my body.”

His eyes narrowed. “ _Some_ control?”

“She said she can't take my free will tonight, but she could stop me whenever I tried to attack her. She said she'll only have full control next sunrise. So in...about eight hours.”

“In other words, you are physically infected, but not mentally. Not yet, however.” Alex rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Strange, usually it's the other way 'round.”

“You mean- first they'll lose their minds, then they get crippling deformities?” Cole hissed. “Yeah, lucky me. I'm a blood-sucking fiend and you're confused about the order of me losing my free will and my humanity.”

“Because it _matters_ ” Alex pointed out simply.

“Really”

“If your mental capacity had decayed first, then there would have nothing that could have been done to counter it. If you were gone and only your husk attacked me, then I wouldn't have had any choice but give you a quick end”, he explained, and it was his horrible casual tone that startled Cole into freezing. “However”, Alex continued, “Since that is not the case, we still have some wiggle room to figure out how to stop your mind from slipping.”

“...You can do that?”

Alex shrugged. “I have some experience on that front. More important though, you said you can hear the vampire woman, this Mary, right? You hear any of the others?”

Cole furrowed his brows. “No, only her. She's telling me to drink blood, and so far, all I could do was steer away from humans and attack animals. She doesn't like it.”

“You tried attacking her instead?”

“Once. In the catacombs. But she always sicced other fangers on my ass.”

“Like bees protecting the queen, right?”

He blinked. Thought about it for a while. “Yes.”

Alex snorted. “Then it will be easy. Kill Mary, and you won't lose your mind.”

“...How do we find her?”

The Runner furrowed his brows. “I could probably try to track her down, but I have no idea what she smells or even looks like.” With all those dead bodies around, tracking down the one that controlled all the others was going to be like looking for a specific needle in a needle stack. If Cole's assumption was right, then they wouldn't have that kind of time.

“Call Dunbar”

Cole blinked. “Zeke? Why?”

“Mary had been buried here in Empire. Below St. Ignatius, even. So she must have been somebody important. Important enough so she will likely appear in some sort of historic report, right?”

“And Zeke's supposed to find out about it?”

“Have him ask Dana to help him. Four eyes are better than two, after all. Don't know whether she's still around, though, because Nix was in the process of dragging Kuo and her off to some Girl's Night Party. Still, worth a try.”

Cole paled suddenly. Alex only inclined his head. “And there is the second reason why you should call him. There is a bunch of vampires up our asses. It will be impossible to warn everybody, but we can at least make sure our team knows of the danger, no?”

The conduit was already jabbing the keys on his phone, and slammed it against his ear when the dial sound chimed.

“Hey, uh, Zeke?”

“ _Hey Cole, man. Where are you? The girls already went off, and I am still waitin'. You comin' or not?”_

“I'm afraid this has to wait. We got problems.”

“ _Is something wrong?”_

“You could say that.” Cole grimaced. “There are vampires out there, and uh, I don't want them to bite you. So...”

“ _Vampires? Man, you already started with the drinkin'?”_

“He's sober”, Alex threw in. “And telling the truth. I'm picking up loads of dead bodies that don't have the sense to lie down and stay still. Bodies that periodically turn into bats and drink blood.”

“ _...”_

“Zeke?”

“ _...Tryin' to figure out whether to think that this is awesome, or not. Leanin' towards terribly awesome, tho'. How large of a trouble we talkin' here?”_

“Not Beast-level”, Alex pointed out. “However, there is an unknown number of highly mobile and aggressive creatures out there. It seems they are guided by some form of Hive Mind, however. The leader is one woman called Mary. She was entombed beneath St. Ignatius, according to Cole, but is alive now. Don't think it's a coincidence it happened on Pyre Night.”

“ _Okay, guess I can check things up, and let the girls know-”_ Dunbar cut himself off. _“Wait. Why does Cole know where she was buried?”_

Cole inhaled slowly. “I kind of found her. Or better, her minions found me and, uh...let's just say apparently conduit blood is just the stuff a long-dead vampire queen needs to get back to her feet.”

Alex could almost imagine the fat man's eyes bulge from his head.  _“What? What do you mean, brother?”_

“Uhm, to get back to her feet she used me for snack. And left a little something on the side.” He grimaced. “So I'm a vampire too. Pretty fresh, so I don't look as dead as the others, but...” Cole rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah.”

“ _Dude. Don't make shit up.”_

“He doesn't”, Alex threw in. “His metabolism is mostly gone, and what is left is constantly declining, too. I can see the bite mark and the fangs he has, and I met him first when he was a swarm of bats.”

“ _Shit, man. I would think that you're tryin' to pull a prank on me, but Alex isn't the kind to do these kind of jokes. Cole, What are you goin' to do now?”_

“Uh, find Mary and murder her in the worst way possible.” He sighed. “Don't know what else to do, 'cause I'm kind of busy to not to jump the closest person.”

“ _Shit, man.”_

“Listen, just find out whatever you can about this Mary Woman. 'Bloody Mary', like the cocktail.” Cole ran his hand across his scalp. “Any information is welcome, because I seriously have no idea what to do now.”

“ _Yeah, I, uh...will try to figure things out. Uhm, you're sure you're not screwin' with me?”_

Alex snorted. “No” Then he looked somewhat thoughtful. “You can omit Cole's situation from the others for now. No need to work them up yet.”

“ _Jeez, guys, I'll need proof too. Swing by if you get a chance, okay, I need to see this on my own.”_ Dunbar ended the call, and Cole looked vaguely green. “Think he's believing this?”

“Most likely not. But he will check up on Mary, I'd guess.”

“That's...more than I could have hoped for”, Cole groaned, running his hands down his face. “But- what do we do?”

“Find Mary, kill her.”

“I meant once we did stop her. I don't know what to do- I'm a _vampire_ now, Alex. How am I supposed to live with this?”

The Runner only shrugged. “Depending on how much blood you'll need, I think we can work something out.” He hummed for a moment. “Maybe we could experiment, see whether you can stomach  _Blutwurst_ . If not, you can still share my meals. You get the blood, I'll consume the rest.”

“...That isn't really a solution”, Cole pointed out carefully.

“It is.”

“I can't just...go around and bite people, for God's sake. I'm not that kind of guy-”

Alex snorted and crossed his arms. “Right now, you  _are_ . And believe me when I tell you to listen to your instincts and indulge in your needs. Because if you don't, and you go mad with hunger, you will become a larger threat than you are now.” He cocked his head. “Starving yourself isn't the answer, and you will need blood. If you don't want to go hunting on your own, fine- let me find and drag in some assholes, and all of us can go home without eating the other.”

He was pretty pale. “There has to be another way.”

“Maybe there is. But I am pretty sure there isn't much time to find it. We got eight hours, not enough to find you an alternative source of food. So unless you soldier through, you won't see Mary dead until sunrise. You need to stop thinking, Cole. Right now, it's either you or them, and you can't let them win, right?”

Cole's expression was still startled, then he swallowed once and set his jaw. “Okay. I get it. I- I am going to feel sick once this is over, but you're right. I can't let them get away. I need to find Mary, and I need to kill her.”

“Pretty sure you meant 'we'”, Alex threw in with a grin, lifting his nearly arm-long claws. “Because there's no way you'll talk me out of killing a bunch of blood suckers. Not when I already got both hands full of perfectly usable stakes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can tell that Alex is only in on this because he gets to kill things.


	3. Secrets

Without anything else to do for now, Cole and Alex were mostly just running circles, fanning out from their current location and checking up on the biggest crowds. As terrifying as it was, Cole quickly learnt that he actually enjoyed some of the vampire powers he now had at his disposal. The transformation into a swarm of bats was chief amongst them, as it allowed him a massive increase in mobility. He got as fast as Alex even, and that put him in a very good mood. Just like Kuo with her mist form, and now he finally understood why she'd been so happy when she first discovered them.

He could almost forget just where his variation of those powers came from.

Of course, Mary just had to pull him back into reality then, with a soft whisper at the back of his head.  _“See? Those powers, you're a god among men now. Of course, you already were, I assume, and I must admit it is delighting to have a subject with powers such as you. My children are going to test you tonight. Don't worry, they won't kill you, but the loss of limbs is still very painful.”_

“Shut up!” Cole snarled.

Since he stopped to pay attention to her, Alex had too, was watching him with furrowed brows. “She's talking to you?”

“Yeah. And told me she'll send the others after me.” His scowl melted into a slightly confused expression. “But...if she calls them her children, why throw them into a meat grinder? She _knows_ I kill them.”

“I think she wants to know exactly what she bought, so she's sending her other vampires after you”, Alex suggested. “And seeing as she can make more vampires simply by snacking on people, in her opinion it wouldn't be a loss either.” Then he suddenly made a noise and spun to face the north edge of Ascension Parish. Cole knew better than to argue with him, and followed when he broke into a dead sprint across a roof. With a snarl, the Runner threw himself over the edge and dropped to the ground, hitting the floor when Cole caught up and leapt down as well. Three vampires had a group of civilians cornered, but whirled the second the two of them made their appearance.

“Shit!” Cole hissed, then picked up his voice. “Stake them through the heart, or decapitate them!”

Alex just scoffed and his claws buffed up when he added the Musclemass to them. He punched the air and turned one of the fangers to mist in an instant. “Total obliteration works too!” He pointed out as he charged one of the remaining vampires.

Cole went for the other, hunger and anger burning inside of him and he threw his body towards him. He ignored the civilians that scrambled for safety in favor for frying the fanger with a few thousand volts to knock him back, then lunged for him and jabbed his stake cross into the guy's chest to kill him. The vampire hissed and fell to ashes, and Cole swung around to rush towards the second. Alex had already done a number on him, ripped off his arms and parted his torso from his hips, but the guy was still alive, if panicking and begging now. Cole brought the spear down, and he fell apart.

“Was that really necessary?” Cole heard himself ask.

Alex shrugged. “Just wanted to know how durable they are. Not strong, but they don't really die either.”

“No reason to make these things suffer”, he grumbled. Then nearly slapped his own face because he was feeling _sympathy_ for these blood sucking fiends. He was torn from his thoughts when he heard a shrill squeak, and turned to see Alex holding a rat. “Uh, what's that for?”

Alex eyed the rodent. “I don't know how much food you'll need, but I doubt all those critters you've attacked were any filling. I mean, I should know.” Cole had seen Alex being hungry only  _once_ . That had been after he'd went away on a mission with Blackwatch as per his agreement with them, and returned starved. He ate three criminals to take the edge off, and four more until he could think straight again. It had been terrifying, and part of him was scared how he looked to Zeke and the others now. Was he the same?

Alex held the rat out to him. “You need a bite?”

Did he? He had felt somewhat hungry before, but-

He furrowed his brows. He wasn't that hungry anymore after beating up the other vampires. Maybe just the adrenaline?

He turned to Alex. “Not for rat anyways, but could you find me another fanger? I have to try something.”

To give him credit, the Runner simply tilted his head, inhaled the air deep, and dropped the rodent to move so suddenly, Cole lost a moment to surprise.  
He caught up to him quickly though, partially because he turned into a swarm of bats, and found him in the process of strangling another vampire.

“Okay, just hold him like that”, Cole ordered without waiting another moment and jabbed the spear through the blood sucker's chest to disintegrate him. This time, he let his radar go active in the same moment, and paid close attention to how he felt. He'd been still somewhat hungry, but the moment the fanger went poof, he was feeling...more satisfied. “Huh” It wasn't as good as he remembered the mugger he'd eaten was, but it was better than the animals he attacked. “Looks like I can get some nourishment from killing vampires?”

Alex's brows arched up. Cole grimaced. “Sounds weird, I know.”

“It doesn't”, the Runner countered. “I mean, Infected and Humans are fair game to me too, wasn't too far of to assume it's in this case as well.” He cocked his head. “Guess whatever animates these guys will be transferred into your body too and has the same effect as drinking blood?”

Cole blinked, then grinned. “Fuck, yeah. So I can basically drain other vampires instead of people? Cool, let's get this vampire hunting biz off the ground then.”

Alex snorted amused. “Calm down, Blade.”

“Nah, Heller's Blade. I'm more like Baltimore.”

The other cocked his head. “You got too many legs for being Baltimore.”

“Yeah, but you'll leave my limbs where they are, okay?” Cole was still grinning for a moment until he settled his face back into a neutral expression and looked around. “Now what?”

“Guess the best bet would be to return to the party zone and keep an eye out for vampires, and Mary. I know I would stalk those people that are distracted.” Alex paused suddenly, eyes narrowing. “Better idea, find the Wisemen.”

“Blackwatch?” Cole knew they were still around. Mostly because they, like Zeke, were still recovering from the Plague and as such, weren't allowed in denser populated areas with higher air pollution. 

“Yes, they're excluded from active duty until next year, and I know they are ready to go up a wall when they don't get to shoot a few infected soon. Think vampires apply?”

“Think so.”

Alex grinned and shifted his position, before dashing off into a seemingly random direction. Cole followed after him, finding it easier to move as swarm to keep up with the Runner. It was...weird, to say the least. Felt like he did when controlling his Tesla Missiles, but then again different. Because his body had completely dissolved into a few hundred living tiny bodies, all of them moving in synch and still every one on its own. He'd have to ask Kuo whether it felt like that when she turned into mist.

He spied the canal beneath them as they moved towards the Old City and Smut Triangle, and Alex suddenly altered trajectory again as he thrust himself downwards like a warhead. The next moment Cole noticed a few vampires, and instantly followed after the Runner to get some of them to pick off himself.

...Alex was faster, tearing into the blood suckers with so much violence it would have killed any living thing three or five times over.

Just crippled the vampires, however, and Cole could simply end them by staking them. Then Alex made a motion and jabbed his own claws into one of them to kill him. “Anything?”

Cole focused. “Don't think so, but I'm good at the moment. I'll let you know if I need them maimed, not minced, okay?”

The other hummed. “Deal.” Then he waved his hand. “Now come. There are some Wisemen nearby.”

Cole frowned and sniffed the air too. He couldn't smell little more than a lot of people and their blood inside their veins. Guess he had to trust Alex on this as he led the way along a street and towards the great open space just East of St. Ignatius. Cole had trained his Vortex here, he remembered, and after Bertrand he and Zeke spend a lot of time hanging out on the benches and just enjoying the sun. Now there was a music stage, and some technicians were still working on getting it ready for the show.

Cole stopped, eyes narrowing at the sight of the banner at the back of the stage. “Father Ignatius, Demon Slayer”, he read out loud. He glanced at Alex. “Think this might be important?”

“If it is, Dunbar will find out about this”, the Runner countered, never taking his attention of the small crowd that already gathered to watch the show. He made a noise and started moving towards them.

Amongst all the party people Cole could see the towering shape of the Supersoldier. Next to him was that Blackwatch Captain that Zeke tried to flirt with. Neither were wearing their uniforms, but were still easily recognizable. The giant lifted his head and turned towards them as they approached, expression switching quickly from alarmed to exasperated and blank.

Santos just looked annoyed. “Mercer”, she greeted them. “MacGrath”

“Captain”, Alex inclined his head. “Where's Cross?”

“Back at Phillipe.”

“Figured as much. He hates crowds.”

“He hates _cheerful_ ”, the Supersoldier corrected him. “Anyways, why do you want to disturb him in his brooding?”

Instead of answering, Alex just held up a hand, cocked his head, and whirled in place to jab his claws through a vampire that materialized right behind him. The vampire gasped in surprise and exploded into dust. Before either of the two Wisemen could even comprehend the situation, more vampires simply appeared all over the place, screeching at them. The civilians fled in panic when Cole threw his hand out and fried the closest fanger to knock him back, then charged and speared him right through.

By then, the two Wisemen finally caught themselves. A vampire lunged at Santos, but the woman easily ducked under the attack, fired at the vampire's back a few times and jabbed her knife into its chest to kill it.

“Fucking vampires?! Mercer, really?!”

“Why do you always assume it's my fault?” He gave back, bisecting another fanger.

“Because it usually is”, the D-Code snapped, crushing two guys together and turning them into paste. They weren't going to regenerate from that.

Cole formed more ice shards and flung them at another pair of vampires, staking them from a distance, while Alex formed his Whipfist and tore the heads of the last three right off. When he pulled his arm back in, he turned to the two Wisemen. “And there is the reason I'd like to talk to Cross.”

Santos was still frowning, but moved her hand to her radio. “I see the point. Well, at any rate, it gives us something to shoot at.”

“I don't think bullets will do much”, the D-Code pointed out. “Unless they're silver. Or blessed. Do we have a priest on our call list?”

“Nope” She thought about it for a moment. “Close up and personal then. I think the boss is going to _love_ it.”

Cole eyed the banner again, ignoring the Wisemen for now. “Father Ignatius. Saint Ignatius?” He glanced towards Alex. “Hey, wasn't there a statue of the guy in front of the church?”

“There was”

The conduit grinned. “Race you then”, and fell apart into a swarm of bats, tearing out of there. Alex just sighed, shook his head, and dashed after him.

The Wisemen were left behind. Grayson frowned. “Great. Now all of us are going to get rabies.”

Santos crossed her arms. “Rick?”

“Yeah?”

“Vampires count as walkers, right?”

“Guess so”

“We're going to assemble the team, and we're going to equip them with stakes, and we're going to murder the shit out of these blood suckers then. Holding the Red Line and stuff.”

“Good plan. You're going to want to wear collars, though. And we'll need some garlic and crosses and holy water.”

“Well, we do have _one_ Cross.”

“...These poor undead assholes.”

* * *

St. Ignatius hadn't been far away, and Cole had the advantage that he could reach his top-most speed from one second to the other and could ignore obstacles when he turned into his swarm shape. Alex needed some time to build up his speed and had to dodge obstacles, so the conduit reached the statue first.

Bats swarmed around the sculpture, and several female vampires materialized, hissing. Cole realized in an instant that they were probably  _a lot_ more dangerous than the males. The guys had crossbows and bladed things to throw, but the chicks had longer claws and each a pair of SMGs on them.

“ _Ah”_ , Mary's voice cooed, _“My girls were eager to meet you, you know. Please, try to keep your arms and legs attached.”_ Yeah. These chicks? Probably not easy to beat. Didn't help his case that they reminded him strongly of a really pissed off Nix.

He fired bolts at them, and they just fell apart in bats, materializing on top of the trees, and immediately shooting at him. So they were faster too, and way more agile. Great.

He dodged a volley of bullets and dove towards the first few chicks, ripping his spear from his back and flinging it in a half circle to generate his vortex. The vampires lunged to the side to avoid the attack, and he barreled towards the first one to take her by surprise and impale her before she noticed what was going on.

Then the ground exploded and two more vampires got staked by story-tall Groundspikes. One was left, and she looked a little unnerved. Cole threw a shockwave into her direction, knocked her off her feet, and jumped at her to stake her violently.

“That's that”, he grunted, brushed off his pants from vampire dust and turned to the Runner. “Now what?”

Before Alex could reply, his phone rang. Cole answered it.

“ _Hey, I found something”_ , Zeke declared without much fanfare. _“The legend of Pyre Night. They have put up a little show at the clock tower. Like a nativity at Christmas, only with fire and demons.”_

“...And?”

“ _It might be for children, but those stories are always build around a core of truth, right? Anyways, I called Dana and she promised to be there, and you might want to check it out yourself. Could be it gives you something.”_

“A children's story, really?”

“ _Hey man, just take a look. Kuo can fill you in on the finer details later. She's probably the one that has most knowledge of the city here. Nothin' against Nix, but that dame probably knows more about voodoo than why the white folks celebrate and drink themselves stupid.”_

“We should do that”, Alex threw in. “Come on.”

Cole sighed. “Okay then. Might as well. We'll keep you updated.”

“ _Yeah, man. Also, I'd like to see the new fanger you. Just that you know. See you around.”_

The conduit frowned a bit, then turned to eye the clock tower at the south of the Old Town. Zeke was right- children's story or not, it might give some insight as to what was going on here.

They hurried over to the clock tower, though Cole materialized before they approached the closer vicinity. Alex seemed to be anxious, but the tense line to his back disappeared when he spotted his sister, who was completely unharmed.

“Hey guys!” Dana greeted them as they approached. She seemed concerned. “Zeke called us, asked us to meet you here. What's the problem?”

Cole grimaced, while Alex just cocked his head. “We got another outbreak at our hands”, he said simply. Dana blinked, then swore. “What kind? Viral? Conduit?”

“Neither, but it has characteristics of both”, Alex furrowed his brows slightly. “We have one Runner, and a large amount of drones. The good news is, the disease can only be transmitted by the main Runner herself, her drones just kill. They can be easily identified and dispatched. Much like we had with Bertrand and Sasha. The bad news is-”

“I'm on my way becoming one of those drones”, Cole grumbled darkly. Kuo hissed and stepped closer, eying him worriedly. “What?”

“You heard it. I got that woman in my head, and I got some of the drones' abilities already. Still have my own free will, but she told me it'll be over next sunrise.”

“Ah, shit man. Shouldn't you be doing something about that?”

“We are”, Alex pointed out. “There has to be a connection between Pyre Night and the outbreak. And this here is the first clue as to what that connection could be.”

“Pyre Nig't?” Nix furrowed her brows. “But is about demons. Not conduits. Or infection.”

“That's why I said it's not really either of both”, Alex explained. Then glanced pointedly at Cole.

He understood the hint, and sighed. And exploded into a swarm of bats. Kuo and Dana both jumped back in surprise, Nix remained rooted to her spot, eyes wide. Cole did a few laps around them, then materialized on the opposite side of the group again, rubbing the back of his neck, and looking anywhere but them.

Alex just cocked an eyebrow. “How should I put this...we got vampires up our asses.”

* * *

“...Vampires”, Kuo was the first to break the silence after several moments. She eyed Cole, who did his best to sink into the ground, then stepped towards him and jabbed her fingers into the corners of his mouth to look at his teeth, before twisting his head to see the bite mark Mary left behind. Cole made a couple of startled noises, but didn't move until she let go of him, stepped back and crossed her arms. “Cole's one now too. Turned by the main vampire.”

Alex inclined his head. “Yes”

Dana groaned out loud. “Fuck this, Alex. You can't just drop a bomb like that.”

“I find it more efficient to get the talking around out of the way”, he countered with a shrug. “That is exactly why we are here, though. Dunbar said there was some sort of play about the history of Pyre Night? And half lie or not, maybe it helps to figure something out that'll tell us where the main vampire is.”

“Is ova already”, Nix threw in. “Is for de kids, ya know. An' kids got to be in bed now.”

“Well shit”, Cole groaned, running his palm down his face. “Anybody knows the story teller? Maybe they can give us an abridged version what Pyre Night's about.”

Kuo furrowed her brows. “I had experienced a hand full of Pyre Nights back when working with Doctor Wolfe”, she pointed out slowly, “But, ah, never really was interested. All I know is it started as a festival honoring Saint Ignatius and how he drove out demons from New Marais. That's what the bonfires are there for. Everything else eventually degraded and now it's an excuse to burn things, get candy and become drunk.”

“It is a point to start from”, Cole declared. “I mean, this Saint Ignatius got to have something to do with Mary. No?”

“The mom vampire?” Dana questioned. “The one Alex called Runner?”

“Yeah, she was the one to bite me, so...” Cole trailed off with a wave of his hand.

“Nah, not possible”, Nix snorted. “'Cuz dis priest guy, 'e burnt Mary. On de stake.”

Alex blinked. “Right. You said you snuck into the city to take part.” He furrowed his brows. “You know the story?”

Nix grinned. “Loved de story. An' mah sistas an' mah, we would play it too. Make up new stories.”

Cole's expression was delighted. “So you  _can_ tell us what Pyre Night's about.”

“Yup. Made sure a get back to de show tonig't.” She motioned for them to get away from the party crowd so she would have it easier to explain. Alex kept an ear out for vampires, but it seemed they weren't keen on attacking them at the moment. So he could return his attention to Nix.

“Okay, so de story begins in de early years of New Marais”, the fire conduit explained. “Like two hundred years ago. Ya know 'ow it was, white folks were rich an' 'appy. Rig't up til dey was taken.” She shrugged. “Nobody knew wat was goin' on. So dey started pointin' fingers.”

“At everybody who just looked weird, right?”

“Yeah. Jus' dere was dis one dude not buyin' it. De priest at de church.”

“Ignatius?” Dana cocked her head. “So he noticed things didn't add up?”

“Yep. 'e started 'untin' in de nig't. Den 'e found 'er. De demon woman. She was eatin' people.”

“Mary”, Cole breathed. Nix nodded. “Das 'er name. Anyways, she was scared an' ran off. De priest chased 'er into 'er tomb, den called de people of de town to 'elp 'im kill de demons. De priest 'ad dis cross. 'oly ting, Barbed Cross it was called, an' all de demons, dey fled in fear.”

“Except for Mary”

“'cept for Mary”, Nix confirmed. “De priest dragged 'er to de surface an' burnt 'er at de stake.” Flames danced across her palm. “But de demon, she wasn't done. She turned into sometin' fierce an' cursed de priest. Sayin' she was goin' to return one day an' continue eatin' de people.”

“Which brings us to Pyre Night”, Alex noticed. “What about Ignatius' cross?”

“Was buried wit' 'im”, Nix pointed out. “'ere in New Marais, too.”

“Beneath the church, maybe?” Cole wondered, “But I didn't see any graves there?”

“That was because Ignatius died before the church was finished”, Kuo threw in. “So his tomb was build in St. Charles cemetery instead. Apparently, the original plan had been to move his corpse later on, but it just never happened.”

“So, I bet if we look into the grave, we'll find the-” Cole cut himself off the very moment Alex spun around and lashed out his Whipfist to tear through a vampire.

Out of nowhere, they were right in the middle of a vampire rush. Alex tore through several fangers at once, and that was when Cole finally got over his surprise and threw a shockwave into the group to get them to back off.

“Fire! Fire and stakes!” He yelled, “Burn them and stab them!”

“On it!” Kuo shouted, forming spears of ice she ran three vampires through with at once. Nix's cackle was manic and flames jumped to life around them, scorching two more.

“Alex!” Dana's voice cut through the mayhem like a knife. Alex grit his teeth, seized one of his claws and snapped it off to flip it over to his sister. Dana caught it easily, whirled on her heel and jabbed the weapon into another fanger. The sharpness of the biological metal cut through flesh and bone so easily, even Dana with her average college student strength nearly managed to disembowel her would-be-attacker.

Cole impaled another guy and wiped his chin with the back of his hand when the last blood sucker fell apart as dust. “Seeing any more?”

“No, but I'm afraid they know we're looking for this Barbed Cross”, Kuo exclaimed. “This attack just now- it can't have been a coincidence.”

“Right”, Cole grit his teeth. “We got to stop them then.”

“And we got to keep them away from the civilians”, Dana added. “So...Cross?”

“Cross”, Alex just nodded.

“Gotcha”, Dana set her jaw, fastening Alex's claw to her belt. “I'll go and find him.”

Cole nodded. “Yeah, we already met with two of Blackwatch, and they opened a whole lot of pain on these blood suckers. It might be fun for them too. Nix, Kuo?”

“We will go wit' ya”, Nix grinned at Dana. “'cuz de soldiers- a like de way dey tink.”

“We'll keep in contact with you and Zeke”, Kuo confirmed. “Ignatius' grave- it'll be the biggest on the cemetery, Cole.”

“Got it”, Cole immediately exploded into his swarm form and rushed back towards the East. Alex just nodded at the others and followed after him.

Dana snorted. “Once this is over, I'll need to be  _drunk_ .”

“No argument there”, Kuo muttered.

“Am 'fraid we won' find enoug' beer to get drunk”, Nix argued, gesturing to the party crowd half a block away. “Not afta dese guys are finished.”

“We'll see what we can do about it once the time comes”, Kuo reassured her. “And if we have to get into medical alcohol and turpentine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't know Mike Mignola's Baltimore, you need to check the comic out. It's really good.


	4. The Barbed Cross

Alex had caught up to Cole easily once he build enough speed and got to the roofs, then raced alongside of him towards the cemetery at the canal that separated the Old Town and Ascension Parish.

“Say, did you know that your sister is badass?” Cole questioned. “Because I thought she was more the one in the background.”

“What do you mean 'know'? Cole, she and I were on the run for nearly three years. She practically begged me to teach her a few self-defense moves.”

“Yeah, but taking your claw and stabbing vampires with it? This isn't basic.”

“Well, we had to improvise on some things.” He snorted. “Why do you think I know I can leave her alone in dangerous situations?”

“Because she can handle herself?”

“Damn right she can. By the way, I'll bet she'll come at you next, so you can show her free running.”

“Yeah, I'll mark it down in my calendar.” His face fell. “If we get to find a solution to this whole blood sucker business, or else we'll have to do that in the night.”

Alex stopped on one of the last houses overlooking the canal and the cemetery. “We will find a way. Your metabolism hasn't stopped  _yet_ , and you have been dead two times over already, maybe the third time won't stick either?”

“Maybe”

Alex moved to leap off, but stopped himself when Cole made a startled noise and didn't follow him. Confused, he turned to glance at him, noticing his fists clenched and his teeth grit. “Cole?”

“I can't- I can't move!” He snarled out like he was in pain. His eyes widened. “She's there, Alex. She stops me from coming any closer!”

The Runner squinted at the graveyard, noticing the thick red mist that was surrounded by bats in the middle. “Bloody Mary?”, was all he asked.

Cole nodded tensely.

Alex snorted. “I'll see what I can do.” He leapt off, claws blazing as he crossed the distance and hit the street  _hard_ . He didn't like this- it seemed Mary didn't want Cole to attack her or even get close to her before the night was done, and that would mean she was  _aware_ just how dangerous the conduit was as long he kept his free will. So she was likely going to evade him until the sun rose and her control over him became absolute.

She didn't seem to be aware of  _him_ , though, and he remembered how the vampires he killed until now had been more or less oblivious of his presence until he was right in their faces. Could be they were incapable of sensing him like they sensed Cole or living being, because as virus, Alex wasn't truly alive, and the vampires likely didn't realize that he was a threat.

Which made sneaking up on them easier, he figured, when he lunged at one fanger that had his back turned to him. His claws ripped the guy's head right off, and the corpse turned to ashes and bones the next second. He felt he was lucky he wasn't hungry at the moment, because this waste of biomass was just painful to watch.

Yeah, those guys weren't much of a threat. He'd taken down bigger and stronger already. The Supreme Hunter came to mind. And Pariah. And Greene-

He cut off his line of thought with a snarl when he spotted the woman. Red hair, an army at her back, red flowing from her body. For one second, he was back in Times Square, facing off against Mother.

But that wasn't her. This woman wore a delicate dress with lace hems, had red eyes instead of green, and fangs instead of sores, a hair bun instead of unevenly chopped strands.

“Mary”, Alex growled. “Bloody Mary.”

The vampire rolled her eyes. “Ugh. I hate that name. Why do people insist on giving me such a cheap name? 'Red' Mary has a much nicer ring to it, no?”

“I couldn't care less. Me, they called ZEUS. Don't know why, I don't get any fancy thunder powers.” His eyes narrowed. “Not like the friend you bit. Ring a bell?”

Mary sighed dramatically. “Oh my. This is about  _this_ ? And here I thought I could lead a civilized discussion. One master over these pathetic mortal creatures to the other.”

Alex cocked his head, but without losing his ready stance. “Oh? And how did you notice that one?”

“Darling. I'm old as sin. Not something a woman would freely admit, of course, but I have seen my fair share of the strange. And _you_ ”, she gestured loosely into his direction. “You are _very_ strange.”

“Says the _vampire_ ” Alex flicked his claws to the back, letting the metal edges scream through the air and rip through the solid rock of the grave markers. “At any rate, _you_ are making my friend miserable, and there's only one thing that can be done.” Story-tall spears ripped from the ground beneath the vampire, and Alex could hear Mary hiss in surprise. However, unlike her companions, she actually managed to avoid the worst of the blow by turning into a cloud of red mist. Unlike Cole, who was more solid in his swarm form, Mary was a lot more intangible, and as such, Alex's Ground Spikes missed their mark.

Didn't really matter, as long she left or at least dropped whatever control she had on Cole. Of course, if he managed to rip her to pieces, he certainly wouldn't mind.

Mary flitted to the side, ripping out gravestones and pieces of soil to telekinetically throw at him. Alex pulled up his Armor and just took the blows, kicking off the ground to tackle his far greater mass into her, though she kept avoiding him. Wasn't too bad, though, because every time he missed, he kicked off the air and crashed his body into the vampires Mary gathered to protect herself, smashing them under his weight in a cacophony of snapping bones and the enraged screams of their mother.

Unlike Greene, however, Mary knew exactly that she couldn't stop him, and attempted to escape. Alex wouldn't let her, leaping right after her and lashing out his Whipfist in an attempt to snatch her. Mary ducked to the side and he ended up ripping two female vampires to shreds before he hit home and ripped through Mary's gown, injuring her side in the process. The woman hissed once, and fell apart into mist to finally escape through the air.

Alex stopped, glaring at the cloud that quickly rose in height, and snorted. He could pull his armor back and try to chase her down, but sustained flight wasn't one of his abilities.

It was fine though. He had her distracted enough.

Thunder drummed through the otherwise still night, and Alex instantly dashed into the direction that smelled strongest of ozone. When he broke through a small wall cutting off one part of the cemetery from another, he instantly found Cole- who was fighting what looked like common infected in the first stages of their disease. Gray skin, red eyes, claws and fangs- but far from the other vampires he'd seen.

And Cole wasn't killing them, he was only  _subduing_ them. Without looking at him, he yelled “These guys here are the victims! Get the ugly motherfucker before it turns even more people!”

Alex's eyes narrowed and he whirled on his heel to spot the large bat-like creature stalking the cemetery not far from their position. Every time it got a human between its claws, it would bite down and turn them into one of these infected within  _seconds_ .

He growled and threw himself at the creature. It whirled and screeched at him, swung its arms to flap its small wings and actually take off to try and relocate to a different position. Alex was faster, kicking off the air to suddenly change his trajectory and slam into the creature. It squealed and slashed its claws at him. Alex absorbed the blow easily and seized its wing arms to wrench them out of their sockets and then off its body to crash the thing into the floor with so much force, he cratered the paved ground. The creature thrashed and screeched in pain. He just brought his blade down and cut its head right off, watching it fall apart into ashes and bones just like the vampires had done.

At the same time, Cole's lightning stopped, and when Alex turned to look, he found the conduit staring at his foes who had just...collapsed. He glanced at the Runner, who frowned back, then went to kneel besides the closest victim.

They were dead.

Cole swore. “Fuck”

Alex turned to eye the pile of ashes, and his lips curled in a snarl. This fucker was the sole reason these people died. How many had this been? How many were going to continue to die until they found Mary and killed her? “We will stop her”, he growled. “We will kill her and end all of this.”

“We will”, the conduit agreed.

Alex glanced at the destroyed entrance to the crypt. Much to his surprise, however, the room beyond was empty. Not even a casket. “The Barbed Cross?”

Cole grunted. “Gone”, was all he said “It was one of these bat things”, he claimed, running his hand down his face with a groan. “I tried to jump it, but then the  _other_ jumped me. I've been kind of busy trying to fight it off, so I couldn't look where it went.” Suddenly he jerked, and his hands flew to his head as he doubled over like in pain. For a split second, Alex was alarmed, only to stop himself when he recognized it as something he himself had done when listening to the Hive Mind for the first time.

Cole gasped and needed to breathe a few times to stop trembling. Alex cocked his head. “Anything?”

“Asides from a splitting headache?” The conduit grunted once. “It's getting worse, I think. But Mary said I could see the hidden world now. Vampire senses, you know?”

Like his Infected Vision then? Alex hummed. Then nodded. “Go on.”

Cole exhaled again and squeezed his eyes shut. They were glowing when he opened them again, and he looked past the Runner like he wasn't there, then started following some trail. Alex could detect faint whiffs of decay, but with all the vampires in the city, it was getting hard to tell the different tracks apart.

More even, these things were apparently reproducing like mad. Whether more simply woke up, or whether Mary actually turned more civilians, he couldn't tell. What he could tell, however, was that with all the drunk and costumed people out there- tourists and natives alike- these blood suckers certainly had an easy time feeding without anybody any wiser.

They needed to stop these vampires, and they needed to stop it soon. The Barbed Cross was possibly their best chance, because after their brief scuffle Alex was pretty sure Mary was going to avoid him like the literal plague.

Their path led out of the graveyard and back into the city proper, leading east. Then both men stopped at the same time the moment they rounded a corner. Cole because his senses obviously picked something up, Alex because the metallic tang of blood struck his nose.

“What's this?” Cole wondered, closing in on a large jar on the floor.

Alex sniffed briefly. “It's blood”, he pointed out.

“Blood?”

“Human blood.”

The conduit eyed the jar, then went to pick it up. “No use wasting it, huh?” He drained it in one go. Then threw the jar to the ground, shattering it, and went to wipe off the corner of his mouth. “Shit, that's the stuff.”

Alex arched one eyebrow amused. “Like Capri Sun for vampires, huh?” He nodded his head over his shoulder. “There are more of them over there.”

“Where everybody can find them?” Cole furrowed his brows. “Well, guess it's my civic duty to remove them from circulation by drinking them myself.” He proceeded to do exactly that, then his eyes narrowed. “Wait. You seeing the bat freak there?”

Alex squinted, but couldn't see any vampire, giant bat or not. “I don't”

“I do”, he growled, then gestured loosely towards a smaller bonfire with several civilians. “It's over there, posing as person. The trail leads past them, but I doubt we can get past it. But if it becomes aware of us-”

“It would start turning the people and cause more problems for us.”

“Exactly. Shit, lure it away? Ignore it and follow the guy with the Barbed Cross?”

“Kill this one so it doesn't notice you”, Alex suggested. “Sneak up on it and run it through while it is still in human form.”

Cole considered it briefly, then nodded. He stalked away, with Alex watching closely, though not approaching himself. He remained ready, however, to make sure that the vampire, should it notice what was going on, wouldn't attack the civilians.

He didn't need to, in the end, because Cole was able to sneak up on an otherwise nondescript human and run them through with his stake, only for the man to transform into the bat monster and collapse before it fell to ashes. Cole scoffed and made a gesture, then continued following the trail the thieving monster had left behind.

“That was good work”, Alex commented once he caught up with him as they continued walking towards Phillipe.

“Thanks. Thought the drunkards would intervene, but I guess they didn't care.”

“If you notice any more of these things, it would be easier to just kill them while they are in their human form.”

“Yeah, guess so. Less collateral damage.”

The Runner was about to comment that he wished Hunters were like that back in Manhattan, when he suddenly yanked his arm up and his Shield flared out to swallow several high-speed bullets. Four vampire women appeared out of nowhere to shriek at them.

“We won't let you take the cross!”

Alex rolled his eyes. “You hearing that?”

“Bunch of fangers won't stop us”, Cole snorted, creating lightning around his wrists.

The Runner grinned and rushed to the front, shearing through two in one swing, just as the conduit followed after him to drive the stake through their chests and kill them.   
He spun on his heel and fired several bolts at a vampire clinging to the facade of a building to drop her, and Alex jumped her to separate her head from her shoulders.

The last fell apart in a similar manner, but it must have roused every last blood sucker in their closer vicinity. This time, even the Runner could follow the trail of the bat monster- mostly because more vampires kept jumping into their way in an attempt to stop them.

The second they turned a corner just to the side of a smaller music stage, shooting erupted and tore through several of the closer vampires with so much force that limbs were ripped off and holes punched through their bodies. A grenade shot from a grenade launcher turned the fangers into soup and spread their remains evenly across the area.

Cole seemed startled, blinking several times to make sure it was really happening, while Alex just grinned. “Thanks for getting them off our backs!”

“Mercer, this wasn't for you”, Cross growled as he approached them, “This was purely for _me_.” 

The Runner was still grinning. “I take it you're happy you can kill stuff again?”

The Specialist snorted. “Of course I'm fucking happy I can kill stuff again. Do you know how boring it is to just sit there and twiddle your thumbs?” He gestured to his team that was assembled at his back, all dressed in their uniforms and equipped with heavy rifles, various knives- and collections of stakes attached to their belts. “It's the same for all of us. So just tell us where the targets are.”

“All over Old Town and Ascension Parish, likely mingling with the population”, Alex exclaimed. “But they're easy to identify. They are just pretty fast if they want to.”

“Yeah, they weren't quick enough to avoid us”, Redstone snorted. “And since when do blood suckers get to have crossbows and SMGs?”

“Likely Bertrand's old stashes”, Santos assumed. She glanced at Cole. “What about him, huh? He's one of them, no?”

“I am”, Cole admitted. “However, until sunrise I still have my free will.”

“Free will?” Cross furrowed his brows. “That would indicate that there is a Hive leader, right?”

Alex nodded. “There is a main vampire, a Runner if you want it that way. She's the only one who can turn others permanently into vampires. She also appears like a normal human, asides from her fangs, that is. Not like her servants.”

“And pets”, Cole added. He waved his hands vaguely. “There is some form of...giant bat things around. Another stage of evolution of vampires, maybe. Anyways, look a lot like that one dude from the Batman comics, and can appear like normal folks, right up until they transform and attack people. If they bite humans, they will turn into what could be described as ghouls.” He spat on the ground. “The effect is instantaneous and not reversible, and the victims will die if the bat thing is taken down.”

“I see” Cross just cocked his head. “Life signs?”

“Vampires are undead”, Alex pointed out. “I don't think I can consume them, and they don't have much in the ways of metabolism or circulation.”

“Good” The Specialist nodded to himself. Turned to the D-Code. “Your scanner can detect dead bodies just as much as any infected, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You'll point out these blood suckers for us then, try to keep them contained until we move in to kill them.”

The giant grinned and pulled his mask into his face while also lifting what seemed to be a pointed piece of garden fence for stake. “Yes, Sir. Permission to speak freely?”

“Granted”

“I always wanted to kill vampires, sir.”

Redstone laughed and slapped the big guy's back. “I think I'm speaking for all of us if I say we  _all_ wanted to kill vampires.”

“Not really”, Estoban threw in with a frown. “I always wanted to shoot dragons.”

The other shrugged, gestured loosely to Alex and Cole. “Hey, man, pretty sure if we stay around these two chaos magnets here, and we'll get to shoot your dragons too eventually.”

Cole made a choking sort of noise, but from the way his eyes were tearing it was a cut-off laughter. He cleared his throat quickly to avoid any of the others to question them. “So, we're cool? You will try to keep the fangers off the population?”

“ _Try_ being the operative word”, Cross admitted. “We don't have enough manpower or time to prepare to keep these blood suckers under control, but we will position ourselves near the biggest crowds and try to keep them away from the population, if that helps any.”

“It does help”, Alex confirmed. “Thanks. Keep an eye out for Dana or the others, and we'll see how to stop this before the sun rises.”

“How?” Santos questioned.

The Runner glanced at the conduit, who shrugged and went to answer. “Apparently there is some sort of vampire hunting gizmo. Don't know what it looks like, but it obviously is important enough that Mary sent her biggest and meanest pets to fetch it, so we'll check it out.” He jerked his chin over his shoulder. “Trail leads to Phillipe, too. Any cellar entrances you know about?”

“There are catacombs beneath the complex”, Anders confirmed. “We checked it out when we evacuated the population back when the Beast was stomping about. Seems to go deep, too. So...”

“Pretty sure these fangers are hiding down there”, Cole agreed. “Okay, we'll see whether we'll find them, you spoil their appetite. Good hunting.”

“MacGrath?” Santos called out before they left. “I'm carving your name on my favorite stake. Either as good luck charm, or to make it your personal stake I'm going to stab you with should you not manage to solve your problem, so you better don't screw it up.”

Cole grimaced and watched the Wisemen leave, and turned to Alex. “She's joking, right?”

“She got an incendiary grenade with my name on it, too, so...no. She's not joking.”

* * *

The trail Cole followed led right into Fort Phillipe. If it had been military property then it would have been questionable how Blackwatch didn't notice the bat monster get in- but Phillipe was still very much public with guided tours regularly cutting through the Wisemen's base. Now it was crowded with some party animals that had gotten lost or were doing their own celebrations.  
Part of the usual tours also included the catacombs beneath the construction, but during the preparations for Pyre Night, the officials had closed down all entrances to prevent drunks from stumbling in and getting injured or lost.

The door the vampire went through was unlocked however. He knew because the echo he was chasing showed him, and he stepped through into the small burial crypt for the commanders of the Fort. The far wall had been torn down by bootleggers decades ago, and led deeper into the belly of the city. For a moment Cole wondered just how they had managed to keep everything dry down here, even inside a swamp.

Then he decided he didn't really care and hopped on top of the smuggler train tracks and thrust himself to the front, listening to the heavy footfall of his companion as he ran besides him.

“How close are we? Because as fun as this scavenger hunt is, I don't think we have all night to waste.”

“No idea”, Cole admitted. “But we're definitely getting closer to some...” He squinted, and the washed out echo of the monster bat was overlaid with fresher tracks of normal vampires. He stopped abruptly and summoned his lightning. “Oh, come on already!”

Alex didn't question, just knelt down and planted a cluster of Ground Spikes just beneath a pair of fangers, while Cole lunged to the front to take a vampire chick by surprise and run her through before she even realized what was going on.

“I guess we are on the right trail, then?”

He furrowed his brows. “What? You questioning my guidance?”

“Somewhat”, Alex admitted. “Like, I get that it is possible to follow one voice inside the Hive Mind, but you described you can only hear Mary. Not the others, so it is more of a one-way-street. And still, you lead us through ambush after ambush, which just proves that we are closing in.”

Cole shrugged. “I did something of the sort before”, He admitted. “In Empire. Once when I tracked down the murder of Lynnae Carey, and once when I tracked down Dwight's killer. In both cases, I have been following some form of echo they left behind. It's the same here, only I'm tracking with the help of...I don't know? Vampire senses?”

Alex tapped the wall besides his head thoughtfully. “Well”, he eventually admitted, “Whatever it is, keep doing it.”

Cole did, and the trail led them through the underworld of New Marais, and through several vampire ambushes. Not that it deterred either of them- the fangers went down just as easily as any other human when faced with Cole's lightning, so all he had to do was stake them afterwards. Or he utilized Nix's fire to burn them directly to ashes, or he flung icy spears into every direction and turned these assholes into pincushions.   
And Alex, well, he was clearly the top predator. Immune against everything they did, insanely fast even in such narrow hallways, and just about everything he did killed something.

The trail eventually curved upwards into what seemed to be old industry complexes, following old rickety ladders that were best just avoided completely. Then, in what could have been a storage room, the track ended with a wooden chest sitting on the floor. Cole blinked, then grinned and approached it. “Finally!”

“Cole-” The rest of Alex's voice was drowned out in the cacophony of cracking brick and mortar when the floor collapsed under the conduit's weight and sent him flailing towards the tracks far below. He hit the ground hard- and heard the screech of the bat monster as it lunged at him. He swore and rolled over his shoulder to dodge the blow, just as it suddenly exploded into a swarm of bats. Alex landed besides him with a mighty crash.

He didn't spare him a glance, just kicked off the floor again and threw his body into the direction of the bat monster. The creature screeched and rolled to the side, so Alex missed it by inches.

Cole snorted and threw his hand out, firing several bolts of lightning at the thing to make it back off- and then Alex hit its back like a freight train. A freight train with claws, that was, because once his feet touched solid floor, there wasn't much left of the bat freak but a shower of body parts and blood.

The Runner snorted and wiped off his chest. “Thanks for distracting it”

“Hey, what's teamwork for, huh?” Cole rolled his shoulders. “Okay, let's get that cross.”

“Should you touch it?” Alex questioned as they headed to the center of the collapsed ceiling where the wooden box sat still mostly unharmed. “If it is such a good vampire killing tool, it might hurt you too.”

Cole blinked. “Right” He drew his stake and carefully moved it under the lid to flip it open.

The box was empty.

Well, not really. There were still a picture of Ignatius and several Saints, and a small bible, and the cushioning inside.  
But the cross itself was gone.

“The _fuck_?!” Cole groaned, running his palms down his face. “Please don't tell me grave robbers got the best of us _and_ Mary, and already melted the cross down in the fifties or so.”

“Don't think so”, Alex pointed out, turning the wooden container in his hands. “See this? The lock's broken, but the edges haven't rusted, so it is fresh. Pretty sure the fangers stole the cross and led us on a merry goose chase after the empty box.”

“Shit, so back to square one?” He blinked. “Wait. Hopefully they haven't thrown it in the bog.”

“If they did, we would find it easily”, Alex muttered. Cole furrowed his brows as he watched the Runner pluck a small folded piece of parchment from its holster. “What's this?”

“Don't know yet” Alex pointed out and flipped it open. “Huh. It's in Latin. Well, that was to be expected from a priest, I guess.”

“And how does it help us find the Barbed Cross?”

The other didn't reply immediately, just turned the page and ran his finger down the tiny inscriptions. “It doesn't. But Ignatius described how he created the cross to combat Mary.”

That...could actually be helpful. If they didn't find the Barbed Cross, then maybe they could make one themselves? Alex made a noise, brows furrowing. “Sure. Of  _course_ ”

“Care to share?”

“Not certain how much of this is true or not, but Ignatius describes how he made this thing. With wood from the Cross Jesus died on, silver from King Solomon's Temple, tempered in Holy Water from in the Vatican, and blessed by God Himself.” He snorted. “All bogus, if you ask me. If God exists, He doesn't care about us. The Holy Cross should have fallen apart centuries ago and any pieces that still exist are too small to actually build a cross from it. The Vatican is just a massive cesspool of all major Sins. Why should Holy Water be any different than normal water? Solomon likely didn't even exist.”

“But there has to be a reason the cross worked? Or else they wouldn't try to get rid of it.”

“Power of Suggestion, I'd guess.” Alex snorted. “There's no reason why any dead body should fear Holy Water, or roses, or garlic. Silver, at least, has some anti-bacterial properties and rabies actually causes a person to become sensitive against light and aggressive, but I doubt the people in the medieval ages actually knew this. Not with how ignorant and downright stupid the people were.” He waved his hand slightly. “I think the vampires were just as easily to be influenced as the general population, and if you talked a vampire into believing that any Christian symbol is harmful to them, their psyche would do the rest. Pretty sure you could also talk a vampire into believing a Coco Chanel logo works as ward and they won't be able to get past it.”

“...And that means?”

“Mary is deadly afraid of the cross because _she_ _believes she has to_. As such, it is actually a way to stop her, but I'd rather go for the old and much more effective 'kill her till she doesn't move anymore, then kill her some more'.”

“Yeah. I'll try the first way, you the latter.” Cole sighed. “Shit, now what?”

“Tell Cross to get Napalm ready. Then we'll corner her and set her on fire. I mean, according to Nix it already worked once, right?”

“Set her on fire, burn the ashes _again_ , and mix everything with concrete to build a nice cross from it should do the trick”, Cole agreed. He glanced at his phone, freezing. Four Hours. They've been at this for four hours already, and there were only like four more left until sunrise.

“We got to hurry”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blackwatch is happy too. All is well.
> 
> Well, except that Cole's an undead monster now and they only got like four hours to solve that particular dilemma.


	5. Nothing left alive

Cole's head was throbbing when they got back to the surface in Phillipe. He hadn't realized it in the underground, but his stomach was clenching with hunger. He wasn't really hungry, he had drank enough blood from these 'Vampire Capri Suns', and he had absorbed enough 'un-life' force from the vampires he staked. He couldn't help it, however, because his vampire instincts began to get stronger, demanding more and more of his attention.

More than once he caught himself slipping into his Vampire Vision to find nearby people to bite.

He also discovered some glowing symbols painted on the walls, symbols Alex couldn't see when he told him. It creeped him out, because he just  _knew_ it was getting worse. He was simply losing himself more and more into what he'd become. His mind was still screaming, but that part was vanishing along with his resolve to not attack civilians.

To counter it, he violently staked any vampire he came across, hoping to find only a small outlet from his desperation. But it wasn't  _enough_ , he needed the feeling of fresh warm blood against his throat, and more than once he had to physically tear himself away from closing in on civilians.

On the positive side, they also spotted either Kuo or Nix hunting fangers solo- as conduits they could risk it much more than normal humans, or they spotted the Wisemen taking down vampire hunting parties. For guys who never really fought vampires before, they were pretty capable, and Cole swore to himself he would never, ever, get on their bad side. Especially when he witnessed Colonel Blackwatch take down and kill one of those giant bat things in an one-on-one battle.

But the main question was- where was the cross? Alex tried to help by attempting to consume the vampires to figure out what they knew. It didn't work however, his tentacles jabbed through these guys and acted as organic stakes, turning the fangers to dust each time he tried to eat them.

Then the Runner suddenly stopped on top of a building near the clock tower, baffled expression on his face. “Dana”, he said. “She had always been the one to come up with new ideas if I ran out.”

Cole blinked, too. “Just like Zeke” How could he forget about Zeke? His hand went to his phone. “I'll call him up.” Alex only nodded, digging his own phone from his pocket to contact his sister.

Zeke picked up on the first ring.  _“Cole, man? The Hell you've been? Kuo and Nix are all over the city, and Blackwatch's crawlin' through the streets, killin' fangers.”_

“Alex and I've been looking for Ignatius' Barbed Cross”, Cole explained. “We chased down the thing that stole it, but when we caught up to it, the cross was gone.”

“ _...So they led you on a merry goose chase after an empty box?”_

“Exactly.”

“ _So it has to be something very important. So important, they actually removed it from the box that shielded them from its holiness.”_

“And hid it. Where?”

“ _No idea, man. Maybe some place where we wouldn't look?”_

Cole blinked. “Mary”, was all he said. “In her tomb, I mean.”

“ _Say that again?”_

“If I resurrected myself, I would avoid going back into my own grave. I think Mary too, but at the same time, it is _the_ perfect hiding place for something you don't want to see ever again.”

Zeke whooped.  _“Shit, that could be the explanation. Plus, it sends a signal, you know? Bury the thing that harms me in the place I was buried. Or something like that.”_

“We'll check it out”, Cole declared.

“ _Right on. I'll meet you at the cathedral, and we'll retrace your steps that way.”_

“What? No! It's too dangerous-”

“ _It's not like you have much choice, brother. Sun's gonna come up in a few hours.”_

...Right. Cole sighed. “Okay. Let's just meet up. Share data. Come up with a battle plan.”

“ _I like the sound of that”_

He ended the call and just glanced at Alex. The other shrugged. “He's with Dana”, he said simply. “Let's go meet them.”

“You think that's a good idea? With all the fangers around?”

“Why shouldn't it? With us, they'll be safe.”

“Yeah, uh, what about my condition?” Cole demanded to know. “Lord knows I'm looking at every passing person like they're a juicy steak.”

“Welcome to my world.”

He blinked. “Wait, are you looking at  _me_ like that, too?”

“All the time”, Alex confirmed. “It's part of my deal. Just, I know how to curb it in. I strongly suggest you'll try the same when you are around my sister in the near future, however.” He clapped his hand on Cole's shoulder and tensed his fingers just a fragment. Enough to send jolts of pain rush through his body so he knew he was being in his no-nonsense mode. “And let's hope your self preservation instincts work better than they normally do, Cole. I see one tooth anywhere near Dana, and I will break off your legs. Finish that Baltimore getup.”

He swallowed nervously. “Got it”

“Good. Then we won't have any problems with each other.”

Cole wasn't sure whether Alex wasn't actually joking, but his warning just served as another point as to why he had to keep in control. Even if Mary would win in the end, she would never manage to make him hurt humans.

Then he thought of the mugger and corrected himself- he would never harm  _innocent_ humans.

St. Ignatius was just down the street anyways. Cole and Alex were already close enough to spot their two siblings- and Cole spotted something else. His vampire senses went off, and he saw one of those bat monsters in disguise approach Zeke. Dana seemingly noticed that something was off, was already grabbing the claw at her belt and making a motion to warn Zeke, but she wouldn't be able to do anything.

Cole just acted, fell apart into a swarm of bats and dashed to the front. Alex instantly jumped after him, obviously realizing that something was off, but currently much slower than him. Without thinking, Cole threw his hand out to throw his stake, not realizing he didn't have a hand at the moment but rather a whole bunch of wings- and still  _somehow_ he chucked the spear to the front and it materialized the second it burrowed through the vampire monster's chest to instantly kill it.

It collapsed into ashes the second Dana grabbed Zeke and yanked him back, then both stopped to stare as the swarm condensed back into Cole. He retrieved his spear and cleared his throat awkwardly as he saw their startled faces. “Uhm, I didn't really know I could do that. Was just a spur of a moment thing.”

Alex stopped too, eyes narrow as he kept checking the area for more fangers. Cole grimaced, gestured to the pile of smoldering ashes. “So...you won't be breaking this guy's legs off, I guess.”

“This wasn't a coincidence”, the Runner snarled, ignoring his sister's questions. “They're here, and they're trying to stop us from finding the cross.” His tendrils skittered across his surface. “And, they just made it _personal._ ”

“Which just means we _have_ to find this thing”, the conduit declared. “Because they wouldn't throw all this opposition at our face if there was nothing to be gained, right?”

“Guys?” Zeke seemed pretty pale. “Uhm, can we take this back for a second. I'm still not entirely clear what just _happened_?”

“A vamp was about to make you a snack”, Dana pointed out with an exasperated huff. “Shit, I noticed something was off, but-”

“That is why you can't come with us. Get to Cross, or Kuo and Nix, and lay low”, Alex growled.

Dana only snorted and folded her arms defiantly, toying with the claw. “Hey, this thing targeted  _us_ , so I think it's only fair we'll target these blood suckers back.” 

“Besides, if _you_ are nearby, they're going to target you, right?” Zeke seemed to have gotten over it pretty quick, though he did pop his collar and zipped it shut. “At any rate, now I know that you're really a fanger now, Cole.”

“You didn't believe me?” Dana questioned.

“Sister, it was a bit tough to swallow. But, I'm always open for new things.”

Alex made a disgruntled noise. “Can we hurry then? I'm pretty sure we're on a time limit here.”

“...Right”

Since Dana and Zeke were adamant about coming along, Cole knew it was pretty much useless trying to get them to back off. So they tagged along when he went back to the door to the crypt he went through first. He shoved it open, glanced along the still trashed area, and headed towards the collapsed floor leading to the smuggler tunnels.

“Wow. It's impressive down here”, Dana commented and poked the ground. “Not only is this stuff here really well preserved, but it's also dry. You seen any pumps?”

“No?”

“Huh. This place is a swamp city. The underground should be _flooded_. I mean, the subways in Manhattan are underground rivers since Blackwatch stopped the pumps during the second Outbreak.”

“Maybe better that way?” Zeke questioned. “I still don't have any swimmin' trunks.”

“It's better in any case”, Cole threw in as they slowly walked along the train tracks. “Water and me still don't mix, you know.”

“Even when you are in your swarm form? To be honest, it's pretty badass. You turnin' into a bunch of bats, flyin' around.”

“Giving people rabies”, Dana added.

“Bats with rabies usually don't live long enough to infect people”, Alex just mumbled, eyes narrow and still searching for fangers. After the shock of nearly losing his sister to them, he was probably not going to take any chances.

“Yeah, but look at it that way, Cole- you can keep those bitin' bugs off our asses now. You can eat them like crazy fast.” He paused. “Unless you only drink blood now.”

“There are only three bat species out of over one thousand that drink blood”, Alex commented distractedly. “Cole's more likely a swarm of free-tailed bats, at least judging from the speed he's going at.”

“Meaning I got a future in pest control if we don't manage to solve this shit”, Cole grumbled. Then suddenly paused when his senses tugged at his consciousness. He frowned and cocked his head, eyes narrowing at the sight of a doorway on his right. “Wait. This thing hadn't been here before?”

“What thing, brother?”

Cole blinked. “The doorway?” He paused for a moment, then stepped towards it. Like peeling paint, the wall flaked away, revealing a small room on the other side. Alex made a noise and stopped Cole from going in while moving through himself. “Dude?”

“White Phosphorous”, the Runner grunted once he reached the end of the room, pointing at a crate next to what seemed to be a dumbwaiter. “Highly volatile and toxic.” He paused and retrieved a small object from the tanks. “A detonator? Just what the fuck are they planning to do with it?”

“Burn the city”, Dana realized, face paling. “Cole, remember what Nix told us? Mary swore she would return to destroy New Marais. And hey, she's back, and she got her ass set on fire too, so it'll be kind of ironic to burn down the city Ignatius protected by burning her, no?”

Alex snorted and jabbed his claws into the lift's engine to shut it down. “Call Cross”, he ordered. “Have him pull this shit out of here.”

“On it” Dana went to grab her phone and Alex first carved an arrow into the brick before breaking the wall further down. Likely to prevent whatever illusion kept it hidden from popping back up. Cole already glanced to the side, spotting more vampire glyphs all over the place. All of them had the same message- 'Bring the fire bombs this way'. “Shit”, he hissed. “They'll really want to blow up the city. They're crazy!”

“Adding just more to the need to stop them”, Zeke pointed out with a serious expression on his face. He frowned, and turned to Dana. “Yo, Dana? Tell Colonel Blackwatch to not destroy the stashes. I think it would be nice to give this stuff back to Mary. And set it on fire. Right into her face. I think he's goin' to love it the plan.”

* * *

Cross, as they quickly noticed, was more than okay with the plan. Alex figured arson and general pyromaniac streaks was something Blackwatch required in its recruits. The Colonel, once he finished swearing about the sheer amount of white phosphorous, promised to have the material secured and ready to ignite it as soon Mary was nearby.

Now all they had to do was get this particular Runner back into her own tomb to set her on fire. And for this they needed the Barbed Cross for.

Something Mary was apparently fighting tooth and nail for to prevent them from getting it. At least, judging by the crowd of vampires that ambushed them- It would have actually been a challenge, if Alex hadn't been around. As it was, however, he was the best weapon they had at their disposal at the moment. Vampires didn't last long once he got them between his talons, and more even, they mostly didn't even realize he was nearby in the first place. Alex's theory that it was because he was neither a vampire nor a living organism so their senses were incapable of picking him up as a major threat seemed to prove itself. And while it took some bite out of the whole situation, he still enjoyed it immensely.

“Is it any further?” Dana questioned as they scrambled up a piece of collapsed ground.

“No idea”, Cole admitted. “I haven't been really conscious when they first dragged me down here. But I think we are getting closer. I think I can smell it?” He stopped briefly, and fell apart to rush towards the ceiling as swarm. Alex just unceremoniously picked Dunbar and Dana up to spare them the need to climb up those rickety-looking ladders, and leapt after him to drop them at the top of a gallery.

They found Cole standing in front of a giant wooden double door with a complicated lock. He glanced at them for a moment when they arrived, and turned back to the obstacle with a scowl. Then pulled the stake free from his back and swung it in a half circle to create his ash vortex and tear the door open that way.

He paused for a moment, and grit his teeth. “Yeah. This is it. This is where I was bitten.”

The room was circular, with a worn red carpet on the floor, and a raised dais in the back. Alex could still smell the burnt skin and dead bodies that had occupied this room. He cocked his head. “Fan out. Look whether you find the cross.”

They did, Cole headed to the pedestal in the back and glared at it with a deep frown on his face. “Let's just hurry”, he growled. “I don't want to stay here any longer.” So this was where Mary had been, Alex realized, before she resurrected herself with his blood and drank him dry, turning him into this. He could understand Cole's reluctance. He never returned to Penn Station himself, either.

“Guys?” They turned to Dana, who was kneeling in front of a large chest. From the design alone, Alex could guess that it didn't belong here. “I think this belonged to Ignatius”, Dana added, running her finger along the crosses embedded into the lid. Then flipped the old rusted lock and pried it open. Inside, they found various items that obviously belonged to Ignatius, including some objects that were definitely torture tools. “Looks like Ignatius buried everything he had about Mary here. Like...like he never wanted to see it again.”

Cole snorted. “Probably. I mean exorcism and hunting vampires wasn't exactly a clean job, no? Guess good old Ignatius did do things he didn't wanted to think of again and just hoped it would disappear if he put everything here and locked the door.”

“Fat good it's been done”, Dunbar sighed and dug into the trunk. He paused and pulled back, unearthing a small painted picture of a woman and what seemed to be a diary. “That Mary?”

“Yeah, that's her”, Cole confirmed. 

Alex carefully opened the booklet. “Latin, again”, he muttered. “Written by Ignatius, no doubt to impede anybody who would accidentally find this book. Give me a moment, the writing's atrocious.” He read the passages a few times, then cleared his throat. “Okay, so Mary was a governess. So I'd say, early 18 th century, maybe. Would fit with Ignatius' time of death, too.”

“Governess?” Cole furrowed his brows. “That's...some form of teacher, right?”

“Came up during the 17th century in France, and spilled from there into the other countries. Mary's an English name. Ignatius didn't mention where she is from, though I guess Ireland, because Ignatius was a Catholic Priest.” He shook his head briefly. “Anyways, during her work, she caught the smallpox from one of the children she worked with. Ignatius was her pastor back then, and he's describing how he prayed for her to be cured. Or at least that God would accept her into His flock without any problems and she would experience ever-lasting joy. Only, God didn't answer, so something else slipped into Mary's room and took her away.”

“Let me guess. A vampire”, Dana suggested.

“Yup. A vampire. So you can also guess what happened next.”

“She was bitten, and became one herself”, Cole stated darkly.

Alex nodded. “And they did whatever vampires do. They went on a rampage, hunting whenever they wanted to. However, Ignatius felt he had failed her. Failed himself because he couldn't save her soul. So he went after them, hoping that by killing him he could save her.” Alex shrugged. “It failed, because, you see- she was never taken by force. She was  _willing-_ the vampire had been her lover. Already before her death and even more so after. And when Ignatius swooped in and staked him-”

Dana winced. “Ouch”

Alex nodded slowly.  _“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned_ . Ignatius was lucky she was in shock after her lover's final death, and couldn't think clearly when she started raging, murdered everybody who was close. Ignatius fled, with Mary hot on his heels. And she wasn't subtle about it either. Every house he went to for rest, she burned down. Every person who ever helped the priest she killed and turned into her drone. Every city Ignatius ran through she devastated, and not even church officials were safe. Death numbers piled high- and all of the bodies continued being a pain in the ass, and Ignatius couldn't stop it. Kept running for thirty seven years.”

“Until New Marais.”

“Until New Marais. He couldn't run anymore. Likely didn't want to. So Ignatius gathered the townsfolk together and struck first. You know the rest. Mary was burned at the stake, swore revenge, and two hundred years later, she's back and ready to finish what she started.” Alex gestured to the chest. “Ignatius believed she would. So he hid all his tools and diaries away, put them into the same room he put Mary's remains, and had everything sealed, then let the church be build in hopes it would deter her from ever waking up again.”

“Why just sealed?” Dunbar questioned. “Thought he would, dunno, burn the ashes again?”

“Don't know why he didn't. Maybe he wanted to gloat over his enemy. Maybe it was as an admonition to every other vampire. Or maybe he had been in love with her too and simply couldn't bear desecrating her corpse.”

“He wanted to save her”, Cole pointed out. “But he targeted the male vampire, not Mary. If he wanted to save her soul, he should have killed her too, right?”

Alex grinned. “But he didn't. Because he wanted to save  _her_ .” He crossed his arms. “Remember the connection between those bat things and these ghouls. The ghouls died the moment their maker died. The influence they had on their victims was severed- but because the victims had died from blood loss and were only moving because of vampirism, they died as a result as soon the source was gone. A true vampire, however, is  _alive_ , conditionally speaking. If the source of their power is destroyed-”

“They will turn back into a human”, Cole realized. His eyes were glowing in excitement for a moment, before his expression fell. “But- you said it didn't work. Mary remained a vampire.”

“Because Ignatius needed too long. If he had killed Mary's lover in the very night she was turned, the effect would have been reversible.”

“...Meaning if Mary dies before the sun rises I will become normal again.” 

“Normal for you, but yes. It appears that way.”

Cole's head was up, his eyes wide. “Fuck yeah. We just need to get the cross then, and actually find Mary.”

“About that”, Alex lifted his hand and removed his phone from his pocket. It was ringing. “Yeah?”

“ _Mercer”_

“Cross. We were just talking about something you could be doing for us.”

“ _Really? Let me guess, you're looking for some giant ass bat demon.”_

“Exactly”

“ _Well, you're in luck, we got one in our sights. Asshole's just circling above the city in a 'Come and get me' way. I got half the mind to lock some target-seeking missiles on its ass just because. MacAlistair's whining at me to let him get into his chopper, too.”_

“Tell him he's lucky today. We'll need that thing. I think it carries something we need.”

“ _We'll just shoot it down then.”_

“Wait until Cole and I arrived. Dana and Dunbar can bring you up to date on what we discovered here, besides the white phosphorous.”

“ _And then?”_

“Then we will hunt down this fucker. I doubt it'll be easy, but we have to drive it away from the civilian population and get it into a designated kill box.”

“ _Got it. I'll tell Alistair, and you hurry.”_

“Consider it done, sir.”

* * *

They were cutting it very close, Alex thought when they finally got back to the surface right inside Phillipe. The sky had turned into that colorless gray that heralded dawn. One more hour, by his estimation.

Luckily, they didn't need to waste any more time to look for the Wisemen. Cross and two of his team stood just a few steps away from the door, next to an Apache and a truck. “About time you showed up”, the Colonel commented simply. “Thought we were on a time limit?”

“We are”, Cole growled. “If we don't whack her in the next hour, I'm going to be her puppet. She threatened to dress me up in a sailor outfit.”

“Really”, Cross deadpanned. He shook his head, then grabbed a map from one pocket tapping it. “Okay. Then let's not waste any more time. Alistair, get the chopper ready. You and I will chase this fucker down- it was last seen here. Mercer, MacGrath, you two keep the pressure up. Herd it to the rest of the team here. Dunbar, Dana, you two get into the car. Redstone, you take them to the rendezvous point. Move it!”

Alex clapped Cole's shoulder, and the conduit fell into a swarm of bats. Alex dashed right after him, heading to the West again. The stench of the bat monster was easily recognizable, and mingled with the smell of more vampires.   
“There!” Cole snarled. The bat monster was on top of a roof, parading around, while several dozen vampires were nearby and kept watching the area. The conduit hissed and lightning came to life around his limbs, but Alex stopped him. “Wait”

“What?!-” Cole cut himself off, head snapping to the side when the roar of the Apache became audible and the heavily armed helicopter dropped out of the sky, firing two Hydra missiles to utterly blow up a bunch of vampires on either side of the bat monster, which jumped back in terror.

“Now you go!”

Cole threw out his hand, firing a bolt of lightning at the creature to force it to back off. The next second, Alex shot skywards and lashed out his Whipfist to tear another three fangers to bits. The large monster screeched and dissolved into a swarm of bats to rush away from them, but the chopper angled itself to cut off the route to force it into another direction.

Then it suddenly reformed, only to fall apart again.

Alex hissed, tapping his radio. “It can't keep in swarm form forever. It needs to take breaks!”

“ _Acknowledged”_ The chopper swooped down again, tearing another three fangers to shreds with its mounted machine guns, while Cole leapt directly at the bat monster. It screeched and swiped at him, but he caught the blow easily with his shield and retaliated with an energy blade jabbing right into its arm. It shrieked and disappeared again, barely dodging a shockwave Alex generated by slamming his fists together. 

In the distance, he spotted flames and icy mist, and without taking his eyes off the bastard, gestured to pick up their phone.

“ _Is this-”_ , Kuo began.

“It likely has the cross we'll need. We're herding it.”

“ _Got it!”_ Icy spears erupted out of nowhere and impaled two of the bat monster's guards, before it was forced to continue running when a pillar of flames drove it off the roof. Nix cackled. “Hah! Were ya runnin'?” She jumped off and latched onto the helicopter, igniting the missiles before they impacted to rupture them earlier and increase the range of their fiery explosion and take down more of the vampires around.

Cole was looking both pale and enraged, and Alex figured he could hear Mary's voice screaming inside his head in anger. In reaction to her obvious frantic state, his attacks on the vampires began to get both stronger and more wide-spread.

“ _Geez. Your boy really takes the sailor outfit as a personal insult, doesn't he?”_ Cross asked.

“I would too if Greene told me to wear a pea coat.”

“ _Yeah, that won't be happening anytime soon. Unless she's talking to you from the inside of your head ever since you've eaten her.”_

Alex snorted. Kicked off the air and slammed into a rooftop just to the side of the vampire to slash his claws at it. It squealed and vanished again, but had to alter its course when Cole and Kuo both created a formidable wall of ice. Just a block to the north was the bridge leading into Flood Town.

The vampire monster leapt across another roof, screeching as it attempted to reach the bridge and get out of their range- and a massive shape barreled into it suddenly and without any warning, ripping it right out of the air and slamming it  _hard_ into the ground. The vampire screamed and lashed out to get free, then tried to teleport as swarm away-

And bounced back with a terrified squeal at the roar of two flame throwers aimed directly at its face.

“HAH! Eat this, you ugly fucker!” Captain Santos' voice sounded way too happy for somebody utilizing a flamethrower against a vampire.

The remaining Wisemen were at her back, and took care of the vampires attempting to stop her and Jackson from torching the big guy. Alex grinned and kicked off the air again, throwing his body towards the crowd and shredded the first three vampires in one wild swing. Cole was right behind him, throwing up a shield against a set of crossbow arrows before he flipped the polarity and shot the bolts back. He didn't hit any of the fangers, but managed to make them flinch back. Kuo and Nix instantly took advantage of this situation, scattering their formation and driving or killing them off with ice and fire.

Alex noticed Cole setting his sight on the big guy, and he kept maneuvering his body into the way of the Wisemen to prevent them from acting. He bared his fangs in a snarl and lunged at the creature. It spun and shrieked at him, the force of its voice hitting him with enough strength to send him skidding backwards and sent the Wisemen nearby scattering.  
Cole didn't back down however, just hissed at it and fired several bolts of lightning at the creature, forcing it to fall apart into a swarm for a moment.

When it reformed the next second, the conduit lunged at it suddenly, his fingers hooked and claw-like. He ducked under a wide swing, leapt upwards and seized its shoulders to close in on its head.  
Alex figured he would use the spear to impale it and was about to turn and rip the remaining lesser fangers to shreds, when Cole's snarl made him pause and glance back suspiciously. Because the conduit wasn't moving to use his stake and instead slammed his teeth right into the vampire monster's neck to directly drain whatever powers were reanimating it- and likely any blood meal it had ingested itself.

When it collapsed into a pile of ashes, Cole hissed and turned to glare at the other fangers, who suddenly seemed pretty apprehensive, then tried to evade him when he lunged at them to send them scattering with terrified squeals. Alex just shrugged and continued what he'd been doing before. If Cole could dispatch them that way and get nourishment from it, he was more than welcome to do so.

After that, the rest of the blood suckers were easily mopped up. Nix cheered. “Haha! Now dis was de bes' nigt eva! Quick- is dere more of dem? 'Cuz am not finished yet!”

“Whole city is still crawling”, Alex confirmed. “Just, we got like three quarters of an hour left as of now. Cole?”

“Feeling better”, the conduit grunted. “But Mary's screaming at me that I'm not very nice for eating my siblings.”

“Welcome to the club then.”

“Guys?” Kuo's voice cut in. “I don't want to impede on your fratricide/cannibalism party, but the big guy just dropped this. Is that what you've been looking for?” Cole made a noise and jogged over to her, where the Barbed Cross was on the floor. He bent down to pick it up, but there was a flash of light and jerked his hand back with a pained hiss. Smoke was rising from his fingers. Kuo grimaced when Cole just shook his hand swearing. 

“C'mon! _I_ don't believe in God or holy artifacts, why the Hell is this working on me?”

“Maybe it's the silver”, Alex suggested.

The conduit grunted, let lightning run over his body as a form of shield, and grabbed the cross off the floor to jab it into the handle of his stake. He winced. “Shit's making my skin crawl, but I guess if it works on me, it should work on Mary.”

“Now all we need to do is find her.”

“Oh, we don't need to. I know where she is.” He snorted. “Okay, bitch. Let's see who's in control now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to take Mary down.
> 
> Hey, did you know that without the pumps running, Manhattan's subways and everything beneath the streets would turn into underground rivers within the week? Same with DC, by the way, so what we were told in Fallout 3 is actually untrue, because you wouldn't be able to traverse the subways without diving gear.


	6. Control

He knew where she was. Could sense her presence. Could taste her intentions. Cole fell apart and raced through the night towards her position, feeling his blood boil with the desire to obey her. He didn't want to, wanted to finally kill her and get normal again. He knew he was going to cut it fucking close, though, and the chance existed that he'd remain a blood connoisseur come sunrise.

“Cole, man!” He stopped in surprise and angled his swarm form downwards to spot Zeke and Dana and Colonel Blackwatch next to the truck and chopper. He swooped down and materialized again. Alex, Kuo and Nix, who'd been hot on his tail also changed trajectory and hit the floor. “Yeah?”

“Looks like you got the cross, huh?”

“Yeah. Now we were on the way to beat up Mary.”

“That's what we thought.” Zeke nodded to Cross. “He got an idea.”

“Dunbar and I will split off from you”, the Specialist commented without much preamble, ignoring Dana's sharp exclamation that she was going to help them. “We got the white phosphorous secured. We'll blow this bitch up, but will need to prepare the killing field. St. Ignatius's tomb is the perfect stage for this- it is actually below his own statue, if you can believe it. You'll keep our asses covered by drawing attention at the surface, but drive her there and get her into the crypt.” He pointed at Kuo. “You and Mercer, you will be allowed underground.” He glanced at Nix. “You'll stay outside with the Wisemen if these fangers flee into their holes.”

“Wat? Wy?!”

“This stuff is highly volatile. Any stray spark and you'll blow us sky-high instead of the fangers. That means, you'll have to wait until we give you the all-clear to start sparking.” He eyed Cole. “Same goes for you, by the way. No fire or electricity, just plain old physical damage and ice as long you're underground. Now move it! Distract that bitch!”

Without arguing, Cole and Kuo fell apart, Nix teleported away and Alex leapt off the ground. Far beneath them, the conduit could hear the engine of the truck roar to life as Zeke and Cross headed towards the catacombs. Dana was left with the two Wisemen, pouting.

Distract the fangers? Yeah, he could do that. He knew perfectly well where Mary was, and knew he didn't have much more time. His back crawled each time he looked at the sky and saw the pale light that heralded the dawn.

If she hid before the night was gone, he wouldn't have much of a chance to stop her and return back to normal.

Then he smelled blood on the air and rolled to the side, swooping back downwards and hitting the floor just in front of Leo Court. Mary dropped her latest victim, glancing at him with a mixture of boredom and exasperation- until she spotted the Barbed Cross peeking over his shoulder and stepped back in terror. Kuo, Nix and Alex caught up with him and landed besides him with a blast of their respective elements and the cracking of stone. They didn't close in however, not as Cole did as he growled and approached Mary.

“Why are you doing this?” She demanded to know. “I have given you so much!”

“Got not much choice”, Cole replied icily. “Sun's almost up, and I got no intention on becoming your sailor bitch.” He lunged at the same time as the others did. Mary fell apart into red mist and tried to get past them, but he just swung the Barbed Cross and his spear actually ripped through her body, intangible as it was.

“She's running!” Kuo declared, summoning a wall of ice to stop her, though Mary managed to barely evade it.

“Wasn' 'specting anytin' else”, Nix snorted, setting tar aflame and the mist instantly changed its course.

“Don't lose her!” Alex snarled and pounced at her form, forcing her to alter her trajectory again. Herding her towards the crypt beneath the statue.

Fire roared and ice hissed past him, with thunder clapping ominously above them and stray lightning bolts struck the ground or buildings nearby.

And still, despite the ear-splitting noises all around, Mary's shrieks were clearly audible. “If you kill me, you will be nothing!” She warned. “You'll lose your powers, your  _immortality_ \- everything that makes you more!”

“Yeah?!” Cole hollered back, firing several rockets at her before falling apart himself to try and catch up. “Tell you what I won't be- your slave!”

Mary hissed and countless vampires and ghouls swarmed them. Cole snarled right back and yanked his stake free, just slamming it into these fangers to completely obliterate them in one hit. Nix whooped and even Kuo cheered. Alex had an unhinged grin plastered on his face, didn't say anything and started tearing anything undead apart. Nix was the first to make a direct attempt at Mary, splattering burning tar everywhere to force her to flee- while Kuo made sure she stayed on the right track by freezing the humidity in the air solid and form massive walls the vampire woman had to dodge to get around.

Cole and Alex herded her into the direction they wanted to, but Cole at least, stopped giving a damn whether he accidentally killed her or not. All those ghouls that attacked them and were subsequently ripped apart- all those had been people not too long ago. Now little more than mindless husks.

Mary was going to pay for this.

They chased her through the city, never giving her a second of peace while killing and maiming all those creatures she set after them. She hissed and pleaded inside his head, hoping to get through him, but his will was still his own and his hatred pushed her influence back easily.

Mary snarled and stopped just in front of St. Ignatius, eyes glowing as she summoned all remaining vampires to her position- and that was when Cole struck. Clenching his fist, he fired a lightning bolt straight into the clouds overhead to overcharge them and summon a giant thunderstorm right on her ass.

The sheer force of the blow tore apart the statue of Ignatius and dropped Mary through a deep hole into the underground. At the same time, he heard shrieks all over the city, and thick black clouds of bats whirled through the air and darted towards the ground everywhere, vanishing in cracks and open doors to get back into the catacombs and protect their mother.

Cole growled and pounced right after her, partly because he wanted to kill her, and partly because she screamed at her children to protect her. He heard Nix's disgruntled swears as she stopped at the edge, obeying Cross's orders, while Alex and Kuo dropped down just besides him.

Two figures dropped in from above then, one in eye-biting orange, the other in black. Both equipped with weapons, and targeting down a long shaft that opened into a larger chamber further down. Cross only arched an eyebrow. “Good job herding this bitch here.”

Cole grunted and pushed past them. “I got this covered”

“You?” Colonel Blackwatch snorted amused. “Against a few hundred of these assholes? They'll tear you limb from limb.”

“Man, you don't need doin' everything on your own. Let us help you, and let us pick off some of these fangers before they are all dead, okay?” Zeke added.

Cole wanted to argue, but Alex just put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “What are your orders, then?”

Cross nodded towards the shaft. “Mercer, put down some traps, will you?”

“Got it” Alex cracked his knuckles and jabbed his claws into the ground to shove a part of himself down there. The entrance shaft was left open, but Cole felt the virus beneath, knew it was going to react the instant any of the fangers would try to leave, and turn into likely lethal pointy things.

Cole's back shivered briefly, though he only clenched his fists and squared his shoulders to prepare himself for the last encounter. He felt his own sanity trickle away, knew that the sun was already climbing higher and Mary would soon gain control.

They needed to kill her before that happened. He grit his teeth. “The plan?”

Cross gestured to the room. “We set smaller charges further down the access tunnels while you have been busy in the city. Originally, we just wanted to blow them all up with anything caught inside, but this actually neater and might spare the city from too large destruction. Instead, we'll set them off bit by bit, collapse the tunnels and drive the remaining vampires here.” He gestured to the shaft they just came from, where some light was peeking through already. “Sunlight or no, I hope these assholes will try to get past us. We won't let them though, bottleneck them here long enough for my team outside to assemble. Once they are, we will haul ass and ignite the main stash down here. Anything that survives won't be an issue for now- we'll smoke them once we are done here.”

Cole blinked, bared his fangs in a grin and swung his cross. “I like that plan.”

“Thought so.” Cross pressed a detonator in his hand. A fine tremor ran through the ground near immediately, followed by a muffled roar of compressed air.

Then hundreds of vampires and ghouls escaped out of the tunnels shrieking, stopping for a moment as they noticed the five in front of their only escape route. Most of them instantly turned into bats to try and escape through there, but Cross only cocked his head. “Agent, if you would?”

Kuo only arched one eyebrow and clapped her hands together, and thick slabs of ice jumped up in front of the exit, trapping the fangers here.

The Specialist knelt down in that moment and aimed his arm-mounted grenade launcher at them, blowing the first batch apart in a violent ball of fire. “Go!”

Cole and Alex both lunged to the front at the same time. The Runner leapt right through the entire crypt and slammed into the fangers at the other end, tearing more vampires and ghouls apart like they were wet paper, but left enough to escape past him. The conduit took up position near the sarcophagus of Ignatius and flung shards of ice wide to impale them. Any vampire that got too close he staked with his enhanced spear.

Red caught his sight and he swung around out of instinct, hitting Mary with enough force that would have killed any other vampire, though she only cringed back with a pained grimace. The next second, she already recovered, however, and clenched her fist, instantly sending white-hot shards of pain through his brain.

“You are mine, Cole”, she hissed, “Your little rebellious streak had been amusing at first, but I grow weary of it-” Suddenly there was the hiss of electricity, and Mary dodged to the side with a snarl, breaking whatever control she had on him. “MacGrath! Get yourself together!”

Cole grunted and shook his head, instantly whirling to take down another few fangers that attempted to get past him. Cross was besides him, his stun baton and combat knife ready. “The fuck was that?”

“It's getting worse”, he bit out. “The control she has on me gets stronger.”

Cross clicked his tongue, then gestured with his stun baton to the edges of the room. “Avoid those areas if you need to shoot lightning, but I really rather you don't.”

Cole growled. Slammed the stake flat against the ground to force massive spears of ice from the floor to impale or just trap a few more fangers. “Thanks, but I rather go for the direct approach. For  _now_ ”

“Incomin'” Zeke cut in with a startled shriek. Cross and Cole both ducked to the side when Mary swooped over them with blazing claws. The conduit slammed the Barbed Cross into her side to drop her, while the Specialist turned to fired a few volleys of high-density bullets at a pack of ghouls that followed after their mother.

Mary hissed and rolled to the side- and frozen spears suddenly ripped through her and a bunch of other vampires out of nowhere. Icy mist crashed into the vampire mother, solidifying into Kuo who jabbed two arm-long stakes down in an attempt to kill her. Mary just barely managed to avoid the blow by turning into smoke herself.

But when Cole lunged at her with the holy cross, her mist form became tangible enough to be hurt, and she leapt backwards with a pained shriek, while driving another shard of agony through his brain to get him to back off.  
In that moment, Zeke jumped in an snatched the stake from his hands to ram it through the vampire, and Mary fell apart into mist to flee into the dark corners of the tomb with a wail.

“Thanks”, Cole coughed as he took the cross back.

Zeke shrugged. “Anything for my brother.”

The crypt shook when a barrage of tendrils tore through the bedrock and shredded more ghouls. Zeke cheered. “Whoo! Lookit him go!”

“Maybe we should think about _not_ letting him tear down this place while we are still inside of it?” Kuo suggested. “Just an idea, and I'm not really fond of being trapped underground.”

Cole blinked. “Right, shit. I'm sorry-”

“Be sorry another time, MacGrath”, Cross growled, waving his radio. “Mercer! Stop playing with the dead people and move your ass over here! Team's in position, we'll blow this joint!”

“One second!” The Runner hollered back, and punched the floor so hard, all of the ghouls stumbled and the entire tomb shook. Then he leapt over to land besides them with a solid _crack_. Kuo instantly removed the sheets covering the entrance, and Zeke was the first to dash outside, but stopped the second he saw the sunlight peek down the shaft. 

“Shit, Cole, the sun!”

Cole's back turned to ice. The sun- he was still a vampire, he could still taste the blood of the others, could still smell their heartbeat- and the night was  _over_ . Were they too late?

“Move it!” Cross snapped, and he grit his teeth. Vampire or not- they had to kill Mary. If she was dead, she wouldn't have any control over him, so he rushed past the man and into the tunnel. 

The very moment the sun touched his skin, he started  _burning_ . His undead body wailed in agony, and Mary's voice whispered inside his head, that he should get back, back to her, into the dark. There it was safe, there he wouldn't be alone.

“Fuck you”, Cole grunted and continued moving. Trying to ignore the burning feeling as the light ate away at him and he stumbled away from Mary.

“Drama Queen”, Alex's voice grumbled, and suddenly there was darkness again. Cole blinked at the Runner, who had flared out his arms into a pair of shields to protect him from the sun's rays. Cole still had to duck to avoid the worst of it, but it was more tolerable that way.

Cross snarled something into his radio, then grabbed Cole's arm to haul him along. Zeke appeared out of nowhere to take hold of his other arm and together they followed after Alex. Kuo brought up the rear, firing a few ice shards down the shaft from time to time. Above them, Cole could hear the shouting of the Wisemen, and the cracking of rifles, and he knew in an instant that, despite the light, there were still some persistent fangers after them.

“ _You belong to me now!”_ Mary hissed inside his head, _“Come here, I order it!”_

He wanted to, but the iron grip of the other two prevented him from doing much. They dragged him to the surface, despite his struggling against it- but once they were close enough, the shade suddenly increased and a massive set of hands seized him and lifted him bodily off the floor. Cole just noticed the huge shape of the D-Code, pressing him tightly against his body, while Cross spun on his heel and fired several shots at the singular red figure that had come after them into the open. Mary hissed in pain from the sun, but she was far from beaten.

“Nix! Now!”

“Finally!” The fire conduit only snapped her fingers, setting the white phosphorous on fire in an instant.

The roar of the explosion drowned out the shriek of the vampire queen as giant flames snapped out of the hole and enveloped her like living things. Tearing her apart and burning her away with enormous strength and endless hunger.

Cole's body suddenly convulsed, his teeth snapping together and his jaw locked with so much strength, he actually tasted blood on his tongue.

And then, his heart started beating again. The burning of the sun eased up into a persistent itch, and his fangs receded quickly. The Supersoldier put him back on the ground, patted his shoulder, and he collapsed to his knees, just breathing and feeling his heart beat again.

“Well shit”, Santos grumbled. “Now I don't get to use that personalized stake.”

* * *

“Yep, it was one helluva Pyre Night”, Zeke declared, putting down his beer bottle. There were a lot of them now.

“And after that?” The hot lady at his side questioned.

“Well, Cross did good on his threat, went down into those catacombs and smoked every last fanger. Cole came along too for revenge, used that Barbed Cross. Was beautiful. Of course Nix and Kuo, those two ladies really kick ass if they want to.” He took another drink. “Alex wanted to come too, but he was havin' kind of an argument inside his head. Looked like his co-driver buddy, big scary fella named Heller, figured what he'd been doin' and was rightfully pissed he hadn't been invited over.” He puffed out his chest. “But all those folks would have become blood suckers, if it hadn't been for me. Because it had been my idea to use that white phosphorous, and mix it up with some napalm the Wisemen had been lying around. Made a bigger boom and took down Mary. Poof. Nothing left. Cole's back to normal, and the vampires without a leader now.”

The woman at his side only laughed and shook her head. Zeke arched one eyebrow. “Come on. It's true.”

“Oh no.”

Zeke blinked. “Well, mostly true. There are some parts of that story I made up, but it was still mostly true.”

“You're one Hell of a liar, Mister”, she grinned and propped up her head with her hand. “So, what else can you do?”

“Well, there's this thing I can do with a feather, and an electric toothbrush-”

The door clapped suddenly. “Ah, Zeke. Perfect.” Cole strode in, obviously oblivious that he was just about to score. “Knew I'd find you here. Listen, I uh, ran into a little problem.”

Zeke protested, but Cole just continued without hearing him. “I uh, dropped my Amp into a pool-”

“Cole. I'm kinda busy here, man.” The conduit blinked, peeking around his friend and finally noticing the hot chick next to him. 

Embarrassed, he lifted his hands. “My bad. Guess I'll just leave-”

“It's fine”, the woman commented, getting up and stepping around Zeke to join up with Cole. “I'd like to go for a swim.”

Cole blinked, frowning a little and gesturing to Zeke. “Wouldn't you rather-?”

She shook her head. “Oh no. His company was amusing, however. But you know. Places to be.”

Zeke sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose. Friggin' Cole and his ability to turn him into his own wingman without even trying. “It's okay”, he called out. “Just go. Have fun. I'll uh, I'll stay and finish these bottles.”

Cole was still frowning, but didn't press the matter, gesturing loosely to the door and the hot chick followed his lead. She stopped however briefly. “Zeke? Thanks for the story. It was... _very_ educational.” 

She smiled, and he jerked back and nearly fell off his stool when he saw the dagger-like teeth flash between her lips for the brief moment she was turned to him before she followed after Cole.

When the door clapped shut and they walked away, Cole sighed. “Alex. You can be a real asshole sometimes, you know that?”

The woman only shrugged. “I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, look. It was really just a story told by Zeke in an attempt to impress a pretty lady. Also, Alex is a dick whose only humor is 'trolling'. But what else is new?
> 
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
